Tattletale
by ShiiroiKitsune21
Summary: In which Heimdall sees and actually reports things, and a lot of trouble is avoided. But not all.
1. Chapter 1

**I wrote this because Heimdall would make an incredibly good spy master, what with knowing everything everyone does every time. But why is no one asking him what the fudge is going on?**

 **Here is what I do with the information.**

 **This is an AU starting from 'Avengers' and messing with everything else after that. Also, for Very Important Purposes, Thor: The Dark World happens in November 2012 and Iron Man 3 happens in December 2013. I just switched the years.**

 **Warning: there is one paragraph of torture, because I couldn't help myself. Nothing overly graphic.**

 **Chapter 1 out of 5.**

* * *

.

 **Tattletale**

 **Chapter 1**

 **.**

"Heimdall," Odin the All-father spoke solemnly, looking straight into the Asgardian's eyes. "You have been bestowed a powerful and remarkable gift – that of All-Sight. You'll become aware of all that happens in the Nine Realms. I expect you to report anything worth knowing to me."

Heimdall nodded. "I shall do as ordered, my King."

.

 _1943, Midgard_

A man in black leather drove a sleek black car in front of a castle, followed soon after by a tank.

The man made his way over the debris of the castle wall, and walked up to an engraved stone coffin. He pushed off the slab over it effortlessly, making his men gape and watch in awe.

One man, clearly not an ally of theirs, trembled, but stood defiantly.

The man in black leather – _Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull, who hid his terrible red visage under a mask –_ didn't look all that bothered that the mock-Tesseract wasn't the Tesseract. He made his way to a carved Yggdrasil and pushed a button.

The Tesseract was there, on Midgard, in the hands of a man who wanted to use its power to conquer his own realm.

Not that they'd have any luck harnessing the Infinity Stone's power.

.

A couple of Midgard months later, Heimdall watched as a fraction – an infinitesimal fraction – of the Tesseract's power was loaded and _restrained_ into a Midgardian metal device.

Heimdall watched as the weapons powered by the Tesseract worked and teleported countless humans in different corners of the Nine Realms.

One of the Midgardians fell face-first into the jaws of a Bilgesnipe. Another froze to death on Jotunheim. Another flew directly into Valhalla. Another one fell right in front of the Bifrost and drowned in the waters surrounding it.

This was definitely worth reporting.

.

Odin the All-father looked in Midgard's direction disdainfully. "They're playing with power far beyond their comprehension," he stated.

"Allow me to show the error in their ways, father," said Thor Odinson, grinning with gleeful rage, "with Mjolnir!"

The All-father narrowed his eyes at his son. "No. Their petty squabbles will soon put their meddling with the Tesseract to an end."

Loki glanced between Odin's royal scowl and his brother's sullen pout. He shrugged minutely.

Whatever the Midgardians did in their own realm didn't concern them.

.

The All-father was proven right when Johann Schmidt was hurled in Muspelheim's realm.

The Tesseract fell.

The Valkyrie – a Midgardian metal contraption, named after the Valkyries! Outrageous! – fell as a human "put her in the water", to quote his words.

The Tesseract was taken, a few Midgardian years later, but the humans didn't use it to build other weapons – yet. Look at them, already picking up and studying the weapons of their HYDRA enemies.

Midgardians were so predictable.

.

 _2010, Midgard_

A man defied the laws of Midgardian gravity with a very different metal contraption.

It suited him – literally.

It was a suit.

A metal suit, built under enemy surveillance _and_ disguised as missile – which it clearly wasn't, though it _could_ fly for a little while – that could spit flames.

It was impressive for a Midgardian, but irrelevant to Heimdall's eyes.

.

That same man was slowly dying because of the very thing keeping him alive.

He still pushed through the whole debacle, foolishly alone in his pain, but helped by two friends who would never give up on him and two strangers from an organization called Shield.

Heimdall had seen the Red Skull's HYDRA infiltrating their ranks, but it was irrelevant to Asgard.

.

That was, until Thor was banished to Midgard.

New Mexico, the Midgardians called that area. There was a small city, Puerto Antiguo, with small people and a lot of small minds – but not all, Heimdall admitted. That Jane Foster had picked up on the Bifrost portals and studied them. She was still nowhere near recreating them, though, so it wasn't something to worry about.

Thor found her and her companions.

And SHIELD.

There was a lot of SHIELD on that operation and less of HYDRA.

Thor had been lucky. In his mortal form, he could have easily perished because of Midgardian weapons – guns, rifles, medicines if used in the right way or amount – but the only time Heimdall almost feared for him was when an archer – _Clint Barton, Hawkeye_ – turned his bow and arrow in Thor's direction.

If Thor had been in all his Asgardian strength, he would have laughed it off. The arrow would have bounced off his armor, or merely scratched his skin.

But he was but a human then. Humans were very fragile to their own environment and intellect. Thor knew he was weaker, but not _how much_ weaker. If the Son of Coul had let the archer take the shot, the banished prince would have died.

Jane Foster's older companion helped Thor, though. The prince seemed to have understood he wasn't worthy of Mjolnir yet. He was learning. If only Heimdall could urge him to learn _faster_.

Loki went to and returned from Jotunheim. Heimdall couldn't see him in that timeframe and he didn't trust him as far as he could throw him. Loki's kingdom was but a temporary solution until the All-father's awakening, so Heimdall waited.

Sif and the Warriors Three came to him and asked to be sent to Midgard. He let them.

Then Loki approached him with the Casket of Ancient Winters, and he couldn't do anything.

.

A little before that whole debacle, Heimdall saw a man exposing himself to what they called 'gamma radiation'.

The results were… most intriguing.

Who knew the Midgardians could become shape-shifters, to an extremely limited extent? Doctor Bruce Banner, who could turn into a raging green giant called the 'Hulk'.

First the man in the metal suit – _Anthony Edward Stark, Iron Man_ – and now this other one. There was still the man who fought the Red Skull – _Steven Grant Rogers, Captain America_ – but he was frozen in time and he didn't seem about to wake anytime soon.

Midgard was an interesting realm to watch.

.

Then Heimdall saw Loki and the Tesseract and the Mind Gem in his scepter and told the All-father.

Thor was sent down to Midgard.

It was strange to see Thor interacting with the Midgardians again.

It wasn't strange to see Thor picking a fight with the man in the flying suit – Iron Man – before 'Captain America' intervened.

"Put the hammer down," he said.

Thor slammed Mjolnir on Iron Man's chest. "Do you want me to put the hammer down?!" he bellowed.

Not very wise of you, Captain America.

Heimdall watched as the human quickly crouched and brought his colourful shield up to meet Mjolnir. The subsequent shockwave felled many unfortunate trees, but it did bring an end to their fight.

Heimdall found that Midgard had few vibranium mines, and all were in the area of Wakanda, a closed nation. It made a raid much easier if they were to harvest a material capable of blocking Mjolnir. Obviously, that would mean waging war against Midgard, a realm which Thor was particularly fond of.

The flying contraption called 'Helicarrier' held Loki in a glass prison that could be dropped on Midgard's surface. Shield didn't seem to realize Loki was exactly where he wanted to be, or that he could have escaped.

The woman who interrogated him – _Natalia Alianova Romanova, Black Widow_ – was clever. Loki did know of Bruce Banner the 'Hulk', and yes it was part of his plan to escape and scatter the 'Avengers', but that was just a bonus.

Loki also knew that the Avengers weren't friends and that they would all crowd around the Mind Gem to study it. Its 'radiation' would call to the Helicarrier those Loki was mind-controlling.

The monster they brought was discord.

And discord was Loki's domain.

The 'Avengers' insulted, accused, growled and shouted and snarled at each other. They jabbed where they felt it hurt the most, twisted their words into their comrades' open wounds and almost fought each other when Loki's forces came in.

'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,' of course, so they worked together.

Mostly.

Thor was sent hurtling towards the ground in that glass prison that even Mjolnir had trouble breaking.

Those Midgardians became more and more dangerous – "ready for a higher form of war," as Thor put it. Not only because they were using the Tesseract.

But Thor was fine after he fell. Shaken, doubting his worthiness to lift Mjolnir, but not despairing.

The Avengers came together shortly after.

Loki had opened a portal to the Chitauri – the _Chitauri!_ How could Heimdall not see them?! – right above a highly populated Midgardian city, but he wasn't using his magic to its full extent. Strange. He tried to use the Mind Gem on Iron Man – but the metal over his heart made it impossible to control him through the scepter.

He stabbed Thor, that Jotun.

Heimdall watched in near astonishment when Thor Odinson, prince of Asgard, took orders from a Midgardian he barely knew and was wearing a skintight flag.

It didn't stop to that, no – Thor and Captain America fought together, side by side, for most of the battle. Thor helped him up when he fell, like a comrade.

A missile created by humans, flew right over the isle of Manhattan and was diverted up into the portal by Iron Man. Just as the Midgardian fell back on his planet, Heimdall heard the dying screams of the Chitauri as they thrashed and burned at the intense heat of the Midgardian weapon.

Midgard never ceased to amaze him.

.

Heimdall watched as the Avengers 'disassembled'.

They each went their own way, but were ready to 'assemble' again whenever the situation called for it. They were a strange team, divided mostly by twos – Tony Stark and Bruce Banner bonded over their mutual interest in 'science', Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton were already shield-brothers… which left Steve Rogers and Thor Odinson, warriors at heart.

After the Bifrost was repaired, Thor was often on Midgard with the Avengers, because trouble stirred up so often they were 'assembled' almost permanently.

Thor and the Hulk had some sort of 'smashing competition' going on. They wanted to prove they were the strongest, but they worked together when it was needed. There was a lot of punching involved. Bruce was much calmer though.

Thor and Tony had a strange kind of relationship. Tony Stark asked and pushed to know whether Mjolnir was "mentally connected to you somehow, you know, to call it at will without yelling 'Accio Mjolnir'" or if Mjolnir could "spin right 'round, right 'round, when it goes down" or if Thor's stomach had "a black hole inside it, Jesus, how much do you eat, seriously".

The prince was confused almost every time. Heimdall didn't entirely blame him.

Thor and Steve had something much closer to camaraderie. They spoke about their missions and adventures with their teams – the Warrior Three and Sif, and the Howling Commandos – and bonded over their past experiences. Thor even asked Steve about the "intricate stages of Midgardian courtship" since he had heard about a certain Peggy Carter and he needed advice to "court" Jane Foster.

The soldier's face was stricken, scrunched up in pain and grief, but he did tell Thor what he knew.

The prince didn't ask about Peggy again.

Thor and Clint Barton were prone to 'pranking' each other. It often involved the food of the 'common floor': it was either misplaced, eaten when it shouldn't have been, or burnt due to the many machines in the kitchen. They didn't dare touch each other's weapons, in case there was an emergency. Both of them had learned from previous experience not to do that.

Thor and Natasha Romanoff didn't interact very much, but they could work together almost seamlessly. She trusted the prince in battle because he help both on and off the battlefield – even when he 'made popcorn' with his lightning when "you could have used the microwave, Clint talked you into it, didn't he". She was very similar to Lady Sif.

They were valiant warriors, despite their flaws.

.

Thor was very close to Captain America.

They were – arguably, if people wanted a hammer/fist to the face – among the strongest of their race. They both knew how it felt to watch their brother-but-no-quite fall to their 'death'. They both knew of the burden that came with self-sacrifice and their position of command. They were warriors.

If Captain America was injured (both physically or mentally), the 'god' of thunder kept vigil by his side.

There was this one time, when Hydra-disguised-as-AIM captured him on his 'day off'. They drugged him, strapped him to a metal table, tore into his limbs and injected _things_ into his blood, things that made him scream himself hoarse. He struggled and clung to the hope that his friends, the Avengers, would come – he hoped and prayed, as his body twitched and jerked at the electricity and poison coursing through him.

Heimdall watched as Thor, flanked by Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, broke into the building and destroyed anyone and anything that tried to stop them.

"The Captain needs a doctor!" Thor bellowed, Mjolnir spinning in his right hand as he held Steve's twitching body with the other. The Avengers had already did all they could to stabilize their fallen comrade, but there was too much blood on the floor and not enough inside their friend. "I shall bring him to the Healing Chambers!"

"Thor-!" was all Iron Man could say before Thor flew straight back to Avengers Tower and crash-landed into the medical floor. After the humans stopped screaming for the shock, they screamed at each other in order to bring the soldier back to conscious life.

When the Avengers later returned, they stood vigil with Thor over their Captain.

The only times Thor had done this was when the All-father first went into Odin-sleep and when Loki depleted his magic to save the Warriors Three, Sif and Thor from thirty Bilgesnipe.

Thor was very close to Captain America.

Captain America had fought HYDRA for his whole life, and now he was unknowingly standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them at SHIELD. If – when – he discovered this, he'd be in emotional distress and, by consequence, Thor would be too. If Heimdall considered the Winter Soldier's identity too, well.

This was relevant information.

(Humans were so very fragile, even when 'enhanced'. It was risky to befriend them. But the prince had made a decision, had chosen a side and a team of Midgard, and it was one of Heimdall's many duties to make sure he was in the right state of mind to take up the throne when there would be the need.)

So Heimdall called for Thor to return to Asgard – with his shield-brother Steve Rogers.

"Uh," Tony Stark commented. "This is interesting. Can I come too?"

Thor shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

"But Thoooooor," he wailed, his arms flailing as if he were a three-year-old, "the Bifrost! Asgard! Science! I have to go there – for science! Pointbreak, think of the _science_!"

Steve didn't bat an eyelash at the display. "I don't think we'll go there for a tour… right?"

"I believe not. Strangers aren't taken to the Palace unless they're diplomats or it's an emergency only the All-father can deal with. Heimdall only told me he had important information for us."

"'Us' as in us Avengers, or as in you and Steve?" Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow.

Thor nodded at the latter. "He has information for Steve and me."

Tony pouted, went off to the 'Party Table' to sulk and grab a bottle of whiskey. "But _science_ ," he whined. Bruce patted him on the back and whispered, "we still have that other experiment on AIM's Chitauri enhanced weapons," which lifted the billionaire's spirits. He jumped upright, nodded and headed to the elevator to see his comrades off.

Thor lifted Mjolnir to the sky and yelled, "Heimdall, portal!"

Heimdall opened the Bifrost.

"Bring me a piece of Rainbow Bridge, Rogers!" Tony shouted at the duo before they were out of earshot by billions of so-called 'light-years'.

.

"What was it you needed to discuss, Heimdall?" Thor asked.

Steve looked a bit intimidated to be in a whole new realm. At least his uniform wasn't as ridiculous as his second one - the one he was wearing during the 'Battle of Manhattan', as it was later called - and accomplished its job of hiding the Captain's injuries to those without All-Sight.

"Those you fought a month ago," Heimdall announced, noticing how they both tensed up in remembrance, "were not troops of those you call AIM. They were part of the organization you call HYDRA."

Steve flinched and rubbed his right arm self-consciously – the arm they mangled to 'get samples' of his skin, muscles, bones, joints and blood.

Thor put a surprisingly delicate hand on his shoulder and stared at Heimdall. He knew his friend fought Hydra and 'died' to bring them down. "Surely, this is but a jest," he said, almost pleading him to deny what he said.

But Thor knew that Heimdall could see everything, and what he said was the truth.

The guardian of the Bifrost shook his head. "No, it's not."

"How- How's this possible?" the Captain whispered, disbelieving. "Hydra has been destroyed, I saw the Red Skull vaporizing into thin air!" Heimdall didn't correct him on the Skull's true fate on Muspelheim. "Even if I couldn't stop them after crashing the plane, Peggy and Howard and the Commandos… they must have known _something_ was wrong…"

"I'm afraid they did not, Captain," Heimdall stated. "They believed their war was over, when it was just out of their sight. Your friends founded Shield to fight the enemies that came forth to threaten your country, but they made an error in what they called 'Operation Paperclip'."

"'Operation Paperclip'?" Steve repeated.

"What is this operation you speak of?"

"SHIELD recruited its own enemies, including a man you, Captain, have met – Arnim Zola."

Steve sucked in a breath. " _Zola_ ," he growled.

Thor glanced worriedly between Heimdall and his shield-brother. "SHIELD allowed such a man into their midst?" he questioned, rage already burning into his eyes. Whoever caused Steve pain was getting pummeled into the ground by Mjolnir, repeatedly.

Heimdall nodded. "HYDRA has grown inside of SHIELD, inside of AIM and nearly all of Midgard."

Steve was trembling. His face was locked into an expression of wrathful terror, his eyes showed the fury shimmering in his soul. "Who is at the top of HYDRA, Heimdall?" he bit out.

The guardian glanced at his prince and, seeing the same anger in him, he answered, "Alexander Pierce."

.

When the duo later returned to Midgard, they were ready to destroy half the planet.

Even Tony approached them cautiously. His hair was sticking up in weird directions and his face was dirty with the dust of blown-up Chitauri rifles. "Sooo," he dragged out, "how did it go?"

Steve snarled incoherently at him and stomped off to the 'gym'.

"Cap, wait! Don't move your arm like that- Jesus, you tell _me_ to listen to the doctors and then you do this kind of shit, what the _hell_ \- STEVE!" Tony rambled after him and started following him when Thor put a hand on his shoulder.

"We have discovered a grievous threat thanks to Heimdall," he stated. He breathed in and out as the other Avengers turned to him. "SHIELD has been infiltrated by the ones under HYDRA's command."

There was silence for one, stunned second.

"Bullshit," Clint blurted out.

Bruce took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Natasha was very still.

"I'm gonna check," Tony said in a strangely high-pitched tone, striding to another section of the 'Party Deck'. "Jarv, pull up the dirtiest dirt you can dig outta SHIELD."

"As you wish, sir."

"Thor, can you get Rogers? He really shouldn't be punching holes into my stuff."

Thor nodded and went down the elevator.

"Birdbrain, Romanoff, are you up for a confession?" Tony sounded as if he were still talking out of shock. "I need to cross-check a whole bunch of things, reports, information and, you know: high clearance, more info, yeah? J can hack into most of it, but Fury is one paranoid I-hope-not-HYDRA bastard, so what do I know? You're our eyes and ears into actual SHIELD/HYDRA past, yay."

"Thrilling," Natasha deadpanned, but she was as tense as her teammates. Then she said, "Do you think Loki knew?"

Clint snapped his head around to look at her. "Loki?"

She nodded. "On the Helicarrier, he told me 'you lie and kill in the service of liars and killers'. I remember, in the… Red Room…" the woman hesitated an instant, in which Clint nodded minutely at her. "I heard people whispering about HYDRA. They were the ones in charge. After the Black Widow Program was destroyed, and the Red Room was gone, I thought that was the end of it." She breathed out. "I thought Loki was referring to how little difference there was between SHIELD and the Red Room."

"If Heimdall told Thor only now," Bruce said, "I don't think Loki knew."

"Well, let's hope HYDRA doesn't go in too deep," Clint concluded and walked to the fridge to get some orange juice. Coffee would just make him think harder on the SHIELD/HYDRA thing, which he didn't want to do _at all_.

The elevator opened and Thor and Steve walked in.

"Look at who's arrived!" Tony clapped his hands once. "What else did the guardian of the Rainbow tell you?"

"Heimdall told us Director Fury, Hill and Coulson don't know about this, and yet half of SHIELD is a foe."

"There goes my 'not too deep' theory," Clint muttered and started drinking.

"The leader of HYDRA is Alexander Pierce," Steve growled, erratically tightening his grip on the so-called 'super-soldier rehabilitating stress ball Mark 3'.

Clint spat out his orange juice all over the kitchen counter. "The _Secretary_ of _Defense? That_ Alexander Pierce?"

Bruce's 'ten-seconds-from-Hulk-out' bracelet flashed out its warning. "I'll just go over that corner with my headphones," he mumbled and put his headphones on, turned his back on the Avengers and started meditating before Avengers Tower could sport a Hulk-sized hole. He may have whispered that "this is bad for my blood pressure".

"Oh my God – It was _Douchebag Pierce_ that swore Fury into leadership of SHIELD, oh God, Eye-patch's gonna have _kittens_ over this." Tony flickered through a few other files. "Did this guy refuse the _Nobel Prize for Peace_?"

Steve kept gripping the stress ball. "We have to find HYDRA, _all of them_ ," he said through gritted teeth, "before we take everyone out. We can't have them knowing we know."

Natasha nodded. "Did Heimdall give you other names?"

"Aye," Thor said. "He warned us of one Brock Rumlow, his STRIKE team, Jasper Sitwell," here both Clint and Natasha cursed, "John Garret, Grant Ward…" Thor rattled off a dozen other names before he added, "Heimdall told us to beware of Project Insight and Project Centipede, but to never forget that some of the people working for them have been brainwashed – he named the Winter Soldier among them."

The Black Widow's shoulders tensed at the mention of the Winter Soldier.

"Jarv, did you get all of that?"

"Of course, sir. I'm running a research to find all agents who could be part of Hydra due to their connections to these people."

Tony nodded grimly. "Good. Pull up the board."

An holographic board appeared in the middle of the common floor. The symbol of HYDRA laid in its center under the photo of Alexander Pierce. On each of its red tentacles there were pictures of the thirty-odd names Thor reported. From each picture began threads connected to others, of relatives and family and friends who could be HYDRA.

"Hydra isn't only inside Shield," Steve stated, "but also inside of other groups, such as… AIM."

The hesitation made the Avengers – minus Bruce, who was still calming himself down – growl. They weren't going to forget what happened to their Captain anytime soon.

"Jarvis?"

"I've added the AIM scientists to the board, sir," the AI's voice rang out as the photos of the twelve scientists and their thirty-five guards appeared on the hologram, connecting to the pre-existing images and branching out to other known colleagues and friends.

"This," Tony hesitantly said, "is worse than I thought."

.

The next day, the Avengers sat inside the common floor. Everything was in lock down, as the recent Protocol 3 AM entailed.

(It was an in-joke among the Avengers. A drunk Tony had locked himself in his lab at 3 AM with all the alcohol he could hoard in one go to "out-drink y'all, but Spangle's tryin' to stop me, so hear my mighty liver workin' through the speakersss." Jarvis had opened the doors with the equivalent of a human sigh.)

"Who should we tell this?" Bruce asked.

Clint fiddled with an arrow. "Fury and Hill are on our side, right?"

Steve nodded. "They are. But even if we tell them, what can they do? They won't have any more luck than we would, since Sitwell is a Level 6 and no one noticed he's _HYDRA._ Not to mention _Pierce_." He shook his head, pursing his lips. "Before everything else, we need more information… and a plan."

Natasha leaned forward on her armchair. "We could do it the usual way and follow them, but there are too many. We'd waste too much time. We should look into Project Insight and Project Centipede first."

"Trying," Tony said, waving his hand and typing something onto another hologram. "But there's something not even Jarvis can push through."

"I presume it's another AI, sir," Jarvis's voice rang out.

"By the way, this project is Level 10. Top of the top secret stuff."

"Level _10_?" Clint repeated, disbelieving. He shook his head. "The Avengers Initiative got our information clearance up to Level 8, and Fury hides _two whole Levels_ of info from us? So ungrateful."

"Don't take it personally, Legolas – the only registered Level 10 people are Eye-patch, Douchebag Pierce, and the WSC assholes. Cheer up, we're sneaking into their VIP party and splashing their suits with their own champagne."

The archer snorted. "Better later than never," he deadpanned.

"What are these levels you're all speaking of?" Thor asked, having had enough of not understanding. He knew that, higher the number, higher the trust people had in your abilities and loyalty, but still. What was this 'WSC' they were talking about? What was a 'VIP party'?

"Clearance levels," answered Natasha. "Every Shield agent starts from Level 1 and, if they prove themselves loyal and skilled, they can rise up to Level 6 and 7. A few got into Level 8, such as me, Rogers, Barton and, because they couldn't keep him out, Stark."

"Technically," the billionaire added, "Bruce and Goldilocks are Level 8 too, but, you know. Hammertime can get all the gossip from the all-seeing guardian of the magic Rainbow, and Brucie doesn't really like Shield databases, so what can you do." He shrugged and typed a few more strings of code into the hologram hovering inches from his nose. " _I_ can hack them."

"What Level were the ones dedicated to the Captain's thawing?" Thor asked. "Who was assigned that task?"

Uncertain glances were exchanged in silence.

"Oh God," whispered Bruce. "Hydra could have gotten to you, Steve."

The super-soldier looked sick at the mere chance _they_ could have slipped him something poisonous. He could have died ( _again,_ an unhelpful corner of his mind added) and he wouldn't have known a thing. _They_ could have killed him when he was still frozen and dissected him to create their own army of super-soldiers. _They_ could have given him a lethal dose of poison disguised as a new vaccine and he wouldn't have known until it was too late.

Heimdall knew that only two scientists and three guards involved in his thawing were Hydra. The Captain had been lucky.

Tony cut the tension, saying, "Coulson was in charge of overseeing all of your rehabilitation, Spangles."

Clint sagged in relief. "Coulson is as far from Hydra as someone could possibly be, without counting Steve."

"He personally examined each evaluation," Natasha agreed, nodding at the hologram Jarvis had opened at her request. "You've been lucky. The only Hydra agent we know of is Doctor Eugene Bourque, Level 5. He often dealt with hypothermic agents and had been called in once the others realized you had a pulse."

"Imagine his surprise," Clint wryly murmured, a corner of his lips twitching up.

"It's almost like you had a guardian angel," added Bruce, smiling a little. "You know, Coulson."

Steve let out a breath. Thor put his hand on his left shoulder a squeezed lightly. "The Norns wished for us to stand together, my friend. Fear not, for we will fight as one for many years to come."

The Captain's smile didn't reach his eyes.

The Avengers perused Shield's achieves, searching for incongruences and signs of Hydra meddling. They added three other names to their Hydra Board, and were 90% sure that six of those connected to the Hydra agents were part of the organization.

They searched until Tony screamed, "FUCK!"

"What happened _now_?" Clint muttered as they all crowded around their friend.

"Fury, what the fuck, I agreed only on _one_ Helicarrier, _one_ , not _three!"_

Steve's blood ran cold, colder than the ice of the Artic. " _Three Helicarriers_ for… Project Insight?"

Thor's frown deepened and he gripped Mjolnir tighter. Three flying fortresses, firing their weapons down on all of Midgard, like a terrifying rain of fire and death? Why would Hydra do this to their own species?

Bruce's bracelet flashed erratically and he excused himself through gritted teeth. Nobody stopped him, busy as they were with their own horror and rage. How could Hydra go so far without anyone's notice? How long would it have taken them to discover this treachery inside Shield?

Fortunately for them, Project Insight was still two years away from launching. They had time, and they had no intention of wasting it.

.

Heimdall watched as the Avengers' 'Hydra Board' grew in size every day for the next three months.

He watched as Steve Rogers paced the common floor by day and prowled the gym and his room by night – and when he was finally out, he was either fighting the daily threat to Midgard or flanking his two Shield teammates in their 'delicate-info-recovery' missions.

He watched as Bruce Banner spent most of his time devising a truth-serum, calming himself down and helping his 'Science bro'; when he shifted into the Hulk, he was fiercely protective and loved smashing their enemies.

He watched as Tony Stark built more and more metal suits, talked to Jarvis and hacked into Shield databases and AIM facilities, stole information from several governments and supposedly-secret agencies. It was surprising with how much he got away with.

He watched as Natasha Romanoff travelled from country to country, searching for information on the Winter Soldier together with her shield-brother Clint Barton, and killing one Hydra head at a time, making it always seem like an accident.

He watched as Thor Odinson smashed AIM humans more viciously, fried more sleeper Hydra agents by 'accident', and turned the 'cold shoulder' to more Shield agents.

"Heimdall!" Tony shouted up at him from the top of Avengers Tower, "Why the fuck don't you help us out down here?! We could use your All-Sight or whatever the hell you wanna call it!"

Thor went back and forth between Asgard and Midgard, which the All-father hardly appreciated.

But, Heimdall admitted to himself, it also meant that Thor could ask him what Jane Foster was up to. He was so busy he didn't visit her as often as he clearly wanted to.

Consequently, the prince knew of her research about the Realm Convergence as soon as she heard about it and Heimdall saw it.

The problem? Thor had called all the Avengers to London to make sure Jane wasn't hurt by her own curiosity. Only Steve Rogers agreed, if only to stop pacing the Tower like a caged beast, forced not to hunt down Hydra if they didn't want the whole world knowing.

Which led, in an unprecedented and un-amusing twist of fate, to the Aether being stuck inside Steve.

.

 **Next Chapter: "Thor: The Dark World"**


	2. Chapter 2

**This Chapter has double the words of the previous one, woah! Buckle your seatbelts, we're going for a long ride!**

 **Of course, there will be spoilers of "Thor: the Dark World", some of the dialogue in here is taken from the film and adapted to the characters involved. But I had fun changing the battles around. And adding comments. I hope I kept everything (mostly) consistent.**

 **Here you go!**

 **.**

 **Tattletale**

 **Chapter 2**

 **.**

Steve, at least, was more used to controlling excessive energy inside his body than other humans.

Thor wanted to call the other Avengers immediately after he realized just what happened to his closest shield-brother. Steve used his phone once they returned to Midgard – safely into Heimdall's sight once more – and Tony Stark picked up.

"What's up, Cap? Found a piece of Asgardian science for me?" He didn't wait for his friend to answer. "Aw, it's not even my birthday, I'm touched."

"Not… really."

"…That doesn't sound good. What's happening?"

Steve smoothed down his hair restlessly. "I do have… science."

Tony frowned at the Mark 26 suit in front of him. "Then why do you sound like someone just ran over your dog and backed up a few times just for kicks?"

The Captain's face scrunched up in disgust at the image. "I have 'science'… _inside_ of me."

Silence.

"What."

"The Aether."

"The fuck's the Either."

"It's _Ae_ ther, and I have no idea." Steve shrugged uneasily. "Thor says it's an Infinity Stone."

"The fuck is an Infinity Stone, and why the fuck is it inside you."

"It was something between thick smoke and syrup when it went down my throat-"

"-then why the fuck is it called _stone_ -"

"-Tony, I'm already on the verge of freaking out with how much is on my plate, don't make it worse – I'm stuffed full of energy that if I don't control it might blow up a whole lot of buildings and _I don't know what's going on_."

Silence, again.

"I'm calling the others."

"Good."

.

Once the Avengers were informed of the situation (" _not inside Avengers Tower_ , I just had all the tables and carpets replaced after Pointbreak and Jolly Green's wrestling match, we're _not_ bringing an unstable Infinity Syrup inside, Pepper would kill me, _did you hear me?_ "), Heimdall called Thor up to stop a battle on Vanaheim.

"Now what?" Tony asked, spreading his arms. They were near his Malibu residence, inside a hidden underground vault he had built 'in case we need a hiding place not known by SHIELD/HYDRA'. "We can't leave HYDRA to itself, but we can't leave Steve to himself either. That's just not how we roll."

"Bruce and I," said Natasha, "will stay here to keep track of HYDRA. Clint?"

The archer rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not really eager to be within a light-year of Loki." He noticed Thor cringe at the mention, but didn't point it out. "I'll help you guys out."

The Russian spy nodded. "Tony?"

"I think… I'll take Thor up on his offer. I may even invent a device to contain Spangles' excessive patriotism," he said with a grin, trying to get a reaction other than worry from his teammates. Sure enough, both Steve and Bruce rolled their eyes, though Tony couldn't help but notice how their Captain's fingers kept twitching. "Just let me get inside Mark 26 and we're good to go."

Heimdall didn't exactly call for two Midgardians, but they were Thor's friends and that will have to be enough for the All-father.

.

A village of Vanaheim was burning, attacked by the Marauders.

Then Iron Man's voice rang out:

"Bifrost entrance, fuck yeah!"

Thor, Captain America and Iron Man went in three different directions to deal with the 'criminals'. Heimdall noticed that Captain America was quicker and stronger than usual, if only to burn the Aether's energy out of his system.

Everyone was fascinated by Iron Man's 'repulsor blasts', because they _looked_ like magic but they _weren't_. He kept flying over the Marauders' reach – _without magic_ – and that was driving them crazy.

The attack stopped shortly after Thor shattered a Stone Golem with a quick swing of Mjolnir.

.

Steve laid inside a Soul Forge, with Tony hovering over anything he could get his hands on to "get the science while I can, I mean, look at this… _thing_! What the hell is this thing? Jarvis, scan it and let's run some tests!"

The billionaire turned to his human friend. "Ohhh, is that a quantum field generator? Jarvis, does this thing move molecular energy from one place to the other?" He waited for an instant before cheering, "Yes! I _knew_ it!"

Odin the All-father walked in.

"Father," Thor greeted, nodding.

"Your… Highness?" Steve murmured and attempted to stand to properly meet the All-father, but his limbs barely answered to his requests and twitched minutely instead.

"Cool Eyep-" Thor glared daggers at Tony, who hurried to correct- "Cool Highness, Your Highness, sir. Uh."

The All-father barely spared a glance in his direction. He turned to his son. "My words are mere noises to you that you ignore them completely? Why have you brought them here?"

"One of my shield-brothers, Steven, is ill," he gestured to the Captain lying inside a Soul Forge, "I believe he has accidentally absorbed the power of the Aether, so we came here as soon as we could to help him."

Odin's eye narrowed. "One does not accidentally absorb the power of an Infinity Stone, nor sunder it from its host. This is but a foolish jest to let him-" he pointed at Tony, whose gaze was still roaming over the Soul Forge, "-visit the Palace. They belong here no more than a goat does at a banquet table."

Steve blinked. Had he been just compared to a _goat_?

By Tony's not-so-subtle snicker, he was. The super-soldier glared at his friend. He was compared to a goat, too.

Thor looked aghast at the accusation. "Nay, Father, 'tis a matter of utmost importance-"

He was cut off by a wave of raw power, which burst out from Steve's body when one of the assistants around the Soul Forge touched him. The two assistants were knocked to the floor, while both Thor and Tony managed to brace themselves just in time.

Odin looked barely phased by the wave, but he did seem surprised. He strode up to the Captain and put a hand over his arm.

Steve tensed up at the contact, still trying to get his breathing under control. He couldn't force an apology past his lips – the Aether had torn his breath out of him and he could hardly get enough oxygen to keep a tight lid on the Infinity Stone.

"You speak the truth," Odin stated as a flash of red slithered under Steve's skin.

Tony's unimpressed expression translated into 'oh, _now_ you believe us' and he said, "Of course we are, your Highness." He turned to his still human friend. "By the way, Spangles, I got a scan of your Infinity Syrup and that shit looks a lot like the Tesseract. Gamma radiation-wise."

"The _Tesseract?_ " Steve whispered, his eyes widening.

Tony nodded. "To which we've all been exposed six months ago, yes, and since your super-cells are full to the brim with energy, you're either A) going to release it before something weirder than random energy bursts happens, or B) try to burn it out for the rest of your long life, which could easily not happen since this is your _Infinity_ Syrup we're talking about."

The All-father was less than impressed by the flippant way this Midgardian spoke. But he couldn't ignore the Infinity Stone lying inside his Palace, nor send it back to Midgard and wait until its host expired. "Come with me," he ordered instead.

Iron Man and Thor helped their Captain up and followed the king of Asgard out of the room.

.

Odin picked up a book inside the Palace Library.

"You were right, son," he said. "Your human friend does have the Aether inside of him."

Thor's lips curled into a grin at the praise, but his mood was instantly dampened by the threat to his friend. He stared at the book his father had just opened. "'Before the eternal night, the Dark Elves come to steal away your light.' These were the stories mother told to us as children."

Odin nodded. "Their leader, Malekith, made a weapon out of that darkness. It was called the Aether. While the other relics often appear as stones, the Aether is fluid, and ever changing. It changes matter into dark matter, and seeks out host bodies, drawing strength from their life force."

Steve paled at that. He knew it was _dangerous_ , but this was worse than he had imagined. "Doesn't dark matter _destroy_ matter?" he whispered Tony, his own body still shivering with the Aether's energy.

The man, still into his Iron Man suit, nodded slowly. He patted his Captain's back. "We'll get it out before you blow up on us, Cap. No pressure."

"Malekith sought to use the Aether's power to return the universe to one of darkness. But, after eternities of bloodshed, my father Bor finally triumphed; ushering us in a peace that lasted thousands of years," Odin concluded his explanation.

"Uh, your Highness?" Tony raised his left hand, waving it as if he were still in school. "I've got a question. What happened to the Dark Elves? You know, just in case we need to know it."

"He killed them all."

Thor didn't look convinced. "Are you certain? The Aether was said to have been destroyed with them, and yet here it is."

The All-father was unmoving in his conviction. "The Dark Elves are dead."

"Ehm… Does that book happen to mention how to get the Aether out of me?" Steve asked, restlessly shuffling his feet and wringing his hands.

The look Odin leveled at him was impassive. "No, it does not."

The Captain breathed out. "Okay," he exhaled, his hands still twitching. "Okay."

It was clearly everything but that.

.

"Wow, here on Asgard you really dress to impress."

Steve tugged at the large dark-blue shawl covering his uniform and shield. "Thanks," he murmured to the 'god' of thunder.

Thor nodded. "Anytime, my friend."

Tony whistled, touching the clothes made for him. They were a deep red with gold linings, not to mention thick enough to cover the glow of his Arc Reactor. "I'd jump out of my suit and into this if it had my scanners and Jarvis. What kind of material is this? The same as your cloak?"

"Not exactly, no."

"Still impressive. What is its tensile strength?" Tony stretched the fabric a bit and his jaw dropped as Jarvis relayed a number. " _Whaaat_?"

Steve squirmed. "How is it possible I found the Aether? Wasn't it supposed to be sealed away forever, never to be found again?" He asked Thor.

The Asgardian sighed. "The Nine Realms travel within Yggdrasil," he explained, "orbiting Midgard in much the way your planet orbits the sun. Every five thousand years the worlds align perfectly, and we call this the Convergence. During this time the borders between worlds become blurred. You found one of these points. We are lucky that it remained open. Once the worlds pass out of alignment, the connection is lost." He drummed his fingers on the balcony near which they were talking. "It was but a coincidence that you found where the Aether was sealed."

"So you're saying," Tony summarized, "that Steve accidentally stumbled into a portal to wherever the Aether was, the Aether thought he'd make a wonderful host and then he came back to Earth with that? And that we have a teeny-tiny window to re-seal it before all of Steve's mass becomes dark matter and we all die?"

Thor hesitantly nodded. "We'll find a way to save Steven before it happens."

"Wait, didn't your father say there was no way to-"

He shook his head. "Father doesn't know everything."

Steve's ears picked up the sound of light footsteps coming towards them. "Don't let him hear you say that," a gorgeous strawberry-blonde woman, wearing an elegant azure dress, teased.

Thor grinned as his two comrades turned at her approach. "Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, please meet Frigga, Queen of Asgard. My mother."

.

Heimdall couldn't ring the alarm before one of the Marauders broke out of his cell.

But he did see the long, blade-like spaceships flying towards the Palace, and he took one of them down. The guards soon realized they were being attacked and hurried to their battle positions, firing magic blasts to the invaders' black ships.

Predictably, Thor's human friends tried immediately to help, but the prince stopped them in their tracks. "Nay, my friends. You need to keep the Aether safe, away from anyone who would abuse of its power."

Steve's eyes narrowed at the prospect of _not fighting_ when he could. But both he and Tony knew that this attack could easily be a diversion to get the Tesseract – or the Aether, if news ran so quickly between the Nine Realms – so they dutifully followed Queen Frigga to a more secluded section of the Palace.

For some time.

"Alien spaceships made of an unknown alloy that can cut through magically-reinforced stone and metal buildings like _butter_! Steve, stay with the Queen, keep the com on and don't blow up!" his comrade scowled at that. "Jarvis, we're getting a closer look at those Miracle Blades!"

Iron Man shot off to destroy the incoming spaceships.

Heimdall ran back to the Bifrost and activated the shield around the Palace.

It worked… until the Marauder-Dark-Elf – _Kurse_ – destroyed the spinning energy globe under the Palace, making the shield disappear. The Palace was vulnerable.

.

Steve wasn't so sure of the Queen's plan. "I can still fight," he stated, frowning.

She shook her head. "We can't let anyone get to the Aether. You'll hide behind this column and stay unmoving until I have dealt with the invaders."

"Ma'am, what if there are more-"

"Captain Rogers, I can handle myself just fine. Behind the column," she ordered sternly. "Now."

He did as told, though he didn't like it one bit. At least he still had his shield, and could throw it whenever he wanted to.

He heard people dying and falling behind the closed golden doors – and footsteps, heavy footsteps, thumping up to the doors; it had to be an armored opponent, but not heavily so-

The doors were thrown open.

"Stand down, creature," Queen Frigga said, "and you may still survive this."

Steve didn't know what her illusion of him was doing.

Footsteps advanced to the center of the chamber. "I've survived worse, woman."

Who the hell was this monster? Steve almost dared peeking out, but the Queen had ordered him to stay still, so he would. It wasn't him with the bodyguard mission now – he was the target. It made his blood boil, and not all of that was because of the Aether.

"Who are you?" Frigga asked.

"I am Malekith." Fuck. Was this guy serious? Malekith, as in Malekith the king of the Dark Elves? Malekith of the Aether? "And I would have what is mine."

Definitely Malekith of the Aether. Shit.

Tony blew up something outside. Steve heard it both through his com and through the window beside him. "Oh my God, Cap, you've gotta see this. The spaceships are fleeing! Yahooo! Yeah, fly back to whatever gate of hell you came from! I'll study the not-flying corpses of your fallen allies! I was awesome Cap, admit it."

Steve kept his mouth shut. Queen Frigga and Malekith were presumably fighting, but they had suddenly stopped and Steve didn't know who won. Tony's screaming in his ear wasn't helping with his awareness skills.

"Cap? Cap? Are you alright? You didn't blow off your com, did you?"

"You have taken something, child. Give it back," Malekith ordered to his illusion, probably.

There was a tiny sound, as if one of Tony's holograms shorted out and sizzled out of existence.

"Witch!" the Dark Elf accused the Queen. "Where is the Aether?"

"I'll never tell you," was her whispered answer. Steve barely heard her. She was in _danger_. He wasn't one who left people in danger, whether they were helpless children or captured magical queens.

Steve hurled his shield at where he presumed Malekith was just as he said, "I believe you."

His shield knocked Malekith and a more monstrous Dark Elf (?) in the face, but underneath the unique sound of vibranium hitting stuff there was a wet _squelch_ from the Queen's direction, and Steve had the sinking feeling he was too late.

Thor let out an anguished scream and a stream of lightning, scorching half of Malekith's face.

"Tony, get to the balcony of the Queen Chambers, _now!_ " Steve shouted into his com.

Malekith turned briefly to him, sensing the Aether pulsing inside him, but the armored monster was pulling him to the balcony to escape. Steve saw Mjolnir knocking into the monster's shoulder, but his aim was off – _his aim was never off_ – and the two Dark Elves jumped down.

Steve wouldn't let them get away with this murder. " _Tony!_ "

"On it!" Iron Man yelled back and Steve saw him flying after a black spaceship. He was firing missiles and repulsor beams, but the pilot was an expert and they avoided all the crippling hits. Mjolnir flew after them as well, but the spaceship was already returning to the mother-ship, vanishing into the distance.

Not even Heimdall could see where it was.

"Fuck!" Tony swore, reluctantly returning to the balcony. "Those fuckers got a-" he noticed Frigga's corpse. "…Oh."

Odin came into the room and saw his wife's corpse bleeding on the floor.

There were no words spoken between the four of them as the king of Asgard dropped his spear and crouched near Frigga, his wife and his Queen, cradling her head and stroking her cheek as if to reassure her she could still make it out alive.

None of them said a word, not even at her funeral.

.

"What do you mean I can't go see Steve?"

One of the guards who blocked the door looked down at Tony. "You're not allowed into the vessel's chamber."

Iron Man blinked back incredulously. "Oh, he's just a ' _vessel_ ' now?" he hissed, narrowing his eyes. "He's _my_ comrade and friend, not to mention _Thor's_ comrade and friend – you know, Thor, God of Thunder, your _prince?_ Don't go bawling your eyes out to Grandpa Odin when Thor rearranges your ugly mugs with Mjolnir, 'cause I just warned you. Now let me in."

A whole legion of guards swarmed him from all sides.

"About twelve soldiers are missing from their formation, sir," Jarvis whispered in his ears. "The scanners indicate they're keeping guard inside the Captain's chamber."

Tony glanced between the four hundred-something Asgardian warriors. He'd had worse odds with the Chitauri. He just needed to keep his distance. "You know what? I'm gonna-"

"Man of Iron, meet me at the training ring _now_."

"-go away very quickly to meet with Thor and report your outrageous behavior. Outrageous, I tell you."

Tony walked away until he could throw himself off a balcony and fly.

.

 _The next day_

"Are you sure this will work?" Tony whispered to his friend.

Thor nodded. "Aye. Now get out and wait for Lady Sif's arrival. I'll bring-"

"Hell no!" Iron Man snapped. "You're not dealing with _him_ alone. At _all._ I'm not gonna wait for him to go all Psycho on you with a magical dagger."

The prince pursed his lips. "I'll speak to him alone. Wait outside the dungeon."

His tone made clear there would be no negotiation, so Tony nodded and waited behind a pillar.

.

"This is so unlike you, brother. So _clandestine_." Loki chortled, grinning. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather just punch your way out?"

"If you keep speaking, I just might."

Loki turned immediately when he heard heavy footsteps behind him. He raised his eyebrows. "I see you've brought along the Man of Iron. In Asgard's Palace, no less."

"Shut it, Reindeer Games." Tony glared at the trickster behind his faceplate. "I'm watching you."

Loki's grin widened. "Do as you wish, human. I'm not even here."

He shape-shifted into a non-descript guard. He gestured to himself his conjured shield. "Is this better?" he asked to both Avengers.

"It's better company at least," Thor muttered. Tony nodded, snorting.

"Still, we could be less conspicuous."

Loki shape-shifted Thor into Lady Sif and Tony into another woman. "Hmm, brother. You look ravishing."

Tony cleared his throat. Even his voice was different, more effeminate - Jarvis was already scanning what had changed, but he didn't find what that magic was. "How is this _less_ conspicuous, Rock of Ages?"

"It will hurt no less," Thor deadpanned, "when I kill you in this form."

Loki chortled again. "Very well. Perhaps you prefer _another_ one of your companions," he whispered, pointedly looking at Tony, "since you seem to like them so much."

He shape-shifted into Captain America.

"Oh, this is much better!" He cheerily affirmed, mimicking Steve's voice. "Woah! Costume's a bit much. So tight!"

Tony snorted before he could help himself, then glowered at the Jotun through his helmet. "This is not funny, I swear. You, Captain America? Please."

Loki's grin widened. "But the confidence! I can feel the righteousness surging!" He turned around. "Hey, wanna have a rousing discussion about truth? Honor? Patriotism? God bless America-"

Thor slammed him into a pillar before Tony could blast his head off or double over laughing.

"What?" Loki whispered, looking almost offended.

Two guards passed by, ignoring all the ruckus they were making. The human of the trio was almost sure there was some kind of magic involved.

"You can at least furnish me with a weapon," the trickster god said, glaring at Tony when he snorted a "Yeah, in your dreams." "My dagger, or something!"

Thor passed him a glistening metal something.

"At least, a little common… sense…"

It was a pair of _handcuffs_.

Thor smirked. "I thought you liked tricks."

"Sorry, Rudolph the Reindeer – no sharp assassin blades for who hasn't been a good boy." Stark sauntered after Thor, laughing all the while.

.

Steve could barely see a guard heading his way with a meal on a tray.

They had blocked his arms – _wow, Asgardians are actually stronger than humans on average, it wasn't just Thor_ – and tied him down to his (borrowed) bed. He had almost figured out the guards' positions by hearing alone, but he still had to find a way to break free, get past all of them _and_ find either Thor or Tony. Was Tony in the same situation as him, tied down in a literal golden cage?

"Do I look like I'm hungry?" he raised an eyebrow.

The guard with his tray crumpled to the floor an instant later. "No, you don't." A woman (Lady Sif?) cut his restraints and let him get up. "Let's go."

Steve nodded and followed her out of his prison. "Thanks."

Lady Sif nodded back. She led him through the Palace hallways until they were somewhere near the throne room – probably – and there he saw _Loki_.

Tony looked clearly unhappy for being told not to take a swing at him, while Thor looked merely serious.

Steve punched Loki in the face, accidentally charging a bit of the Aether's energy in his fist. He was brimming with pent-up energy, damn it, he had to release it _somehow_. Thor's not-brother actually stumbled back a step.

"That's for Clint, the Helicarrier _and_ New York," he growled.

Loki actually chuckled. He was _smiling_ , for God's sake. "I thought you'd control yourself better, Captain."

Tony pushed him in the vague direction in which they should be going. "Don't push it, Reindeer Games."

.

Even from his cell down in the dungeons, Heimdall could still see everything. All-Sight was not something that couble be easily taken away, and the All-father had more urgent matters to deal with.

.

Thor, Tony, Steve and Loki eventually climbed into the thing known as 'Harrow Ship' in the throne room.

Thor pushed buttons randomly.

Tony raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought you said you knew how to fly this Miracle Blade."

Loki nodded as if to say 'yes, Thor, didn't you say that?'

"I said 'How hard could it be?'" Thor had the grace to look slightly embarrassed under his nervousness.

Loki tut-tutted. "Well, whatever you're doing, brother, I suggest you do it faster.

"Shut up, Loki."

He peered over his not-brother's right shoulder while Tony hovered over his left one. "You must have missed something."

"Jarv, scan this thing," Iron Man muttered to (apparently) himself.

The two not-blood-brothers ignored him. "No, I didn't. I'm pressing every button on this thing."

"No, don't hit it. Just press it, gently."

"I _am_ pressing it gently!" Thor shouted, slamming his hands on every button he could reach. "It's not _working_!"

The Harrow Ship turned on, the engines humming and the displays lighting up.

"Ha ha!"

Tony whistled at the holograms. "Cool stuff. Jarvis, you know the drill."

Steve looked around him in near awe, though he was strangely silent.

Thor turned the 'Miracle Blade' around, destroying every column that hadn't crumbled the previous day.

"I think you missed a column."

"Shut up!"

They flew away.

.

"Look, why don't you let me take over? I'm clearly the best pilot."

Thor barely glanced at Loki. "Is that right? Well, out of the three of us, which one can actually fly?"

"Hey, I can fly too, Hammertime, it's just Capsicle and Trick-or-Treat that don't- _Steve_!" Tony's metal boots thumped inside the Harrow Ship right after he saw his fallen friend.

"Oh dear." Loki peered behind him. He didn't look terribly concerned. "Is he dead?"

Thor didn't dare turn his head around. "Tony, how is the Captain?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"'m okay," came the mumbled and not very convincing answer.

"He's, uh, glowing a little. You know, the usual." Tony tried to sound flippant, but his worry seeped through. "Jarvis says the Aether's building up. We need to get it out, _somehow_. ASAP."

Thor accidentally took off the top of a building.

"Not a word."

Some Asgardian ships started flying after them.

"Now they're following us!"

They started firing.

"Now they're firing at us!"

"Yeah, thank you for the commentary, Loki, it's not at all distracting!" Thor swerved to avoid all the buildings and energy beams.

"I'd go out and help, but Steve over here is still glowing and red doesn't look good on him." Tony shrugged uneasily. "Jarvis, can the suit absorb some of the- right, of course. Fuck."

As they swooped down a tunnel, Thor accidentally sliced the neck of a huge stone statue.

"Well done," said Loki. "You just decapitated your grandfather."

Tony laughed before he could help himself. Thor glared at him for an instant. "Sorry," Iron Man called out. "But that _was_ funny."

They flew over the water, side by side with the rainbow bridge.

"You know, this is wonderful. This is a _tremendous_ idea." Even Steve, who was half-conscious, could hear the sarcasm dripping from Loki's words. "Let's steal the biggest, most obvious ship in the _universe_ and escape in that. Flying around the city, smashing into everything in sight so _everyone_ can see us. It's _brilliant_ , Thor! It's truly _brilliant!_ "

Thor shoved his brother off the ship. Loki screamed all the way down.

Tony pouted at him. "I wanted to do that, too."

.

The three Avengers landed on Fandrall's stolen ship.

Loki rose to his feet. "You lied to me. I'm impressed."

"I'm glad you're pleased." Thor blankly said, just to accept the compliment. "Now, do as you promised. Take us to your secret pathway."

Loki smiled as he took hold of the tiller, thrilled at the chance of freedom, a large smile that only prisoners who see the light of day once more can make.

Tony stared dubiously at him. "You're not gonna run this thing into a pillar for fun, right?"

Loki just laughed.

"So reassuring. I swear, you get more reassuring by the second."

.

They were heading straight for a cliff.

" _Loki,_ " Thor warned him.

"If it were easy," Loki easily answered, "everyone would do it."

"Yeah," Tony 'agreed', "let's smash ourselves into that cliff, yay! Jarvis, record this moment for posterity."

"Recording, sir."

Thor turned to his brother. "Are you mad?!"

"Possibly."

.

They did land in Svartalfheim, though. Roughly, bouncing and skidding on the dark dirt of that realm with enough force to leave ship-sized craters, but with all limbs attached and working.

"Ta-da!"

The three Avengers stared at him with different degrees of _'really, Loki?'_

.

"So, this Svarta-realm has a little less gravity than good ol' Earth. 9.15 instead of 9.81 m/s2, interesting." Tony whistled at Jarvis' scans. "Uh, would you look at that – there's a huge Miracle Blade about four hundred meters in that direction." He pointed toward a dusty mountain away from the ruins of a fallen city.

Loki turned the tiller and glanced at the Captain, who was struggling to stay conscious. "What I could do with the power that flows through those veins."

Thor looked at him, narrowing his eyes. "It would consume you," he stated as a warning.

Tony shifted closer to Steve and glared at the trickster.

"He's holding up alright," Loki said, raising an eyebrow. "For now."

"Hey!" Tony covered the half-conscious Avenger's ears. "Steve's got a track record of not dying when all odds are stacked against him. He's got a lot of fight left and he isn't giving up just because he's got an Infinity Syrup giving him the rumbly tummy."

Steve swatted Tony's gauntlets away from his ears. "I can hear ya, you know."

Thor nodded as if to say, 'see? He'll be alright'.

Loki shrugged. "Say goodbye while you still can."

"Not this day."

"This day, the next, a hundred years, it's nothing. It's a heartbeat. You'll _never_ be ready."

"If one of your heartbeats lasts a hundred years your heart is _really_ messed up," Tony shot back at Loki.

He ignored Iron Man and concluded, "All your precious Midgardian companions, these humans you fight alongside with such fervor – they will be snatched from you."

"Not if we can help it," Tony muttered, while Thor spoke over him, "And will that satisfy you?"

"Satisfaction is not in my nature."

"Surrender is not in mine."

Loki's lips curled for an instant. "The son of Odin-"

"No. Not just of Odin." Thor stepped up to Loki. "You think you alone were loved of Mother? You had her tricks, but I had her _trust._ "

Loki snorted. "Trust?" he asked, disgusted. "Was that her last expression? _Trust_? When you let her _die_?"

"What help were _you_ in your cell?" Thor shot back.

"Who put me there?" Their chests were almost touching. " _Who_ put me _there?!"_

Thor leapt towards Loki and knocked him back, raising his right fist as if to take a swing at him. "You know damn well – you know damn well _who!_ "

Silence.

Even Tony knew this was something he wasn't supposed to intrude into.

Thor breathed out, backing away. "She wouldn't want us to fight."

Loki smirked. "Well, she wouldn't exactly be shocked."

They shared a brief, bittersweet smile.

"I wish I could trust you."

Tony kept his mouth shut by calling on all his willpower and remaining tact. Pepper would've been impressed, had she been there.

The trickster's expression shifted into something he could almost call regret, but it was gone too soon for Tony to know. Thor's not-brother stood up. "Trust my rage."

There. _Now_ they were out of touchy-feely stuff.

"I still think this is one of your most stupid plans, Pointbreak."

Thor shot a _look_ at the other Avenger. Loki smirked.

.

The quartet saw Malekith, Kurse and at least ten other Dark Elves near their own ship.

They were striding towards them.

"Alright. Do you remember what to do?" Thor asked, just to be sure.

Tony nodded. "I'm still 95% convinced this is your _most_ stupid plan, but it's too late to bail out, isn't it?"

"Yes, Thor," Loki agreed, "I hope you know this plan of yours is going to get us all killed."

"Aye," the Asgardian said, a bit embarrassed and guilty. "Possibly."

Loki held out his handcuffed wrists to his hesitating not-brother. The trickster raised an eyebrow at him. "You still don't trust me, brother?"

"Would you?"

" _I_ wouldn't!" Tony called out from a few feet away. Steve could barely stand up without support. "But whatever, it's your call, Hammertime. We're just gonna chill out on this dusty wasteland, no pressure."

He smirked as his blond not-brother released the handcuffs. "Nor would I."

Loki stabbed him in the gut with a dagger and shoved him down the nearest hill.

Tony shot a repulsor blast to Loki's chest. "I knew it, I fucking _knew it!"_

The trickster god dodged to the side and shot electricity from his outstretched left hand, short-circuiting Iron Man's armor, and pushed him down the dusty hill after the other Avenger.

Steve tried to punch him (again), but the Jotun had put himself behind his back, where his hits were barely strong enough to knock a human away, much less a god. It also didn't help knowing that, even if he could get a good hit in, Loki had still the upper-hand.

The Jotun laughed. "Do you really think I cared about Frigga, Thor? About anybody? All I ever wanted was you and Odin, dead at my feet!"

Steve was shoved down the hill along with the other Avengers.

Thor had recovered a bit from his dizziness and reached with his hand for Mjolnir when Loki cut off his hand with his dagger. Thor screamed at the sudden pain spreading from his missing hand, to his forearm and to his shoulder.

" _Thor!_ " Tony yelled. "Damn it! Jarvis, reboot the suit, _now_! We don't have time for more Norse family drama!" His shouts echoed in his turned-off suit. "Come on, now is _not_ the time to play possum!"

Loki twisted both of Steve's arms behind his back before pushing him onto the ground, resting heavily his booted heel into his back. The Captain hissed in pain.

"Malekith!" Loki called. "I am Loki of Jotunheim, and I bring you a _gift!_ " He dug his heel into the man's back, eliciting a grunt. "I ask only one thing in return – a good seat from which to watch Asgard burn."

Kurse said something in a strange language to his leader.

Malekith then nodded at Loki, who took a step back, and stared down at Thor. "Look at me," he said and rolled the prince over with his foot. He was still clutching his amputated hand, breathing hard.

Steve was raised in the air by the Dark Elf's magic, which started tearing the Aether out of his body – the dark crimson dust left his organs and limbs and every cell, a steady stream gathering over Malekith. He felt his eyes roll back and his limbs quivered at the loss of energy.

 _-Earth will be shrouded in darkness and the sun will die along with all the stars of the Nine Realms-_

He dropped to the ground like a limp ragdoll.

"Loki, Tony, now!"

Loki dropped his illusions and Thor 'magically' got his hand back while Tony's suit was suddenly missing from the ground and hovering over the Aether. The billionaire quickly got up from the ground and shouted, "Jarvis, do it!"

The remotely controlled suit flew straight into the Aether and drew it inside itself by mimicking the Tesseract's gamma signature.

(The Tesseract could have been stopped before the portal over Stark Tower was even opened, if Tony could have gotten inside its energy field. The scepter had a similar signature, and it could get inside the field. Hence why his drunk, paranoid self wanted his armor to have the same ability. More or less. It was still a prototype.)

Enraged, Malekith drew the Aether into himself but got only half of it. The metal suit hauled Steve on its shoulder and flew away when Thor called his lightning down on the Dark Elves, cracking the ground with its energy and raising a huge cloud of dust. A couple of enemies screamed as their nervous systems were fried.

Tony coughed, waving a hand in front of his mouth. "Guys," he wheezed, "I'm coughin' my-" _cough cough_ "-lung' out…!"

There was an ominous ticking near him.

"Holy sh-"

Thor flew by him and snatched him up before the gravity-grenade sucked him in. He let his friend down on the ground as gently and quickly as he could, which meant Tony's arms and back were peppered with stinging scratches. "Thanks, Big Guy." He coughed. Thor flew away to fight against Kurse. "J, gimme my suit back."

"I'm afraid," his AI said into his com, "that the energy build-up inside Mark 26 is 225% above safe levels, sir. There would be the risk of the Aether taking over your body as its host."

Malekith was striding up to him, enraged, and Tony was without his armor and Avengers. Shit.

"… _Jarvis?_ "

"On my way, sir."

But Tony saw his AI couldn't control properly a malfunctioning/vastly overpowered suit, he _knew_ it wasn't built to contain so much alien energy and _fuck_ , Malekith was making ominous hand gestures and summoning the Aether, oh _fuck,_ this was it, he was going to die-

Steve slammed into the Dark Elf – or rather, the Aether – with all the speed and mass his super-soldier could achieve. Malekith stumbled half a step to Tony's left.

Then the Aether hurled the Avenger away. _Very_ far away. Tony could barely see the top of his shield when Steve finished tumbling away. That had to hurt a _lot_.

Despite what most of his friends would say, Tony did have some preservation instincts, thank you very much, and those instincts were _screaming_ at him to _run away_ as fast as his non-enhanced human legs could take him.

"You have stolen what is _mine_ ," Malekith hissed in that strange voice of his, as if it were filtered through some kind of box or something. All that was swirling in Tony's brain besides ' _oh God I'm going to die'_ was ' _did this guy borrow Darth Vader's voice?'_

So helpful.

"Sir, the energy build-up-"

The Mark 26 blew up in midair, releasing the half Aether it was holding. Malekith immediately turned around and Tony scrambled the hell outta dodge because _nope_ , dealing with presumed-dead-but-not-dead aliens _without his suit_ was not on his to-do list when he agreed to come to Asgard. Luckily for his internal organs, Malekith left to get the Aether instead of rearranging his innards.

A Dark Elf almost shot his shoulder, had Tony not stumbled on a rock. There was the sound of a rock being shattered and no one else shot him. Thor did _something_ , he was sure of it.

The armor-less Iron Man ran to where Steve had crash-landed.

"Jesus, Spangles," he commented, wincing empathetically at the blood on his friend's neck, "I thought the dusty Syrup liked you."

Steve let out a brief laugh. A snort, really, before he started coughing. "'m fine." When he saw Tony's _'I'm-calling-bullshit'_ look, he corrected, "No broken bones. My back, my arms and my legs sting and I've got a bit of a headache. But I'll heal in two days, tops. I'm _fine_ , Tony."

"Nuh-uh." The other Avenger got up and offered him a hand. "You're not fine till I check you. Trust me, I have a doctorate."

"In engineering, maybe."

"Still a doctor. Turn around, soldier."

Steve snorted and did as told, though a scream from somewhere behind them made him turn almost into Tony's face. A huge cloud of smoke was rising again from the source of the scream. "Thor is in danger, we've gotta help him."

Tony scowled and touched lightly the area between Steve's shoulder blades. The blond man tensed up and hissed at the pain. "Mr. Norse God and Jolly Frost Giant can handle it. See? We'd be worse than civilians in that fight-"

Steve put on his Captain America righteous face. "We're going there."

"Oh no, we're _not_." Tony glared at his friend. "And don't try your Righteous Stare on me. I'm vaccinated. I'm also calling the Pentagon to make everyone realize your face is a weapon of mass destruction, first thing I'll do when we get back to Earth."

Steve kept up his Stare and started walking towards Thor. His gait made clear he would _not stay still_.

Tony grudgingly trailed after his fellow Avenger.

.

"Oh my God, is that _Loki_?"

Thor nodded gravely. "Aye."

"Is he…" Tony almost nudged the grayish body with his foot, but that would be too disrespectful even for him. Besides, he liked not having Mjolnir smashing his innards, thank you. "…Is he _dead?_ "

Again, Thor nodded.

"So, to recap everything," Steve hesitantly began, "Tony's suit couldn't keep the Aether-"

"Half Aether," Tony corrected. He picked up his broken helmet and hoped Jarvis had saved all the scans.

"- _half_ Aether inside, so it blew up and Malekith got _all_ the Aether, which was what we've tried to avoid in the first place." Steve rolled his shoulders, then winced because it was a _bad idea_. "Loki died saving Thor and Malekith escaped without our notice, but I presume he's going to Earth-"

"Wait, wait a second, Cap. You think he's going to _Earth?_ " Tony blinked at him. "Why the _fuck_ would he do that?"

The Avenger shuffled his feet. "When he got the Aether out of me, I saw him targeting Earth, but…" He shrugged uneasily. "I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with the Convergence."

"I think you are right, friend Steven," Thor agreed. The wind picked up as he scowled, as if the elements were upset over Loki's death. "We need to hurry back to-"

Steve's phone rang.

"What the _hell…?_ There's _no signal_ here! We're _worlds_ away from the nearest satellite, for fuck's sake! _"_ Tony flailed his arms. "There is _no science_ here! Gimme your phone!" Steve raised an eyebrow at him, but handed over his phone.

"Featherhead! What's up?"

"Paranormal Activity is up, that's what." Clint sounded angry and… breathless? "You need to haul your asses back to the Tower, now. There's some weird shit going on and we all agree there is some kind of magic involved."

Tony laughed. "If you can send a quinjet to- what did is it called- Svartalfheim or something, sure."

"Where the _fuck_ are you?"

"The Dark World of the Dark Elves, Barton, keep up." Nevermind the fact that Clint had no idea what was a Dark Elf, or that they existed.

"How the fuck are you getting the signal to Svatal-whatever?"

"Fuck if I know."

"Can't you call Heimdall? He's the dude of the Rainbow Bridge, right? You can ask him to send you here."

Thor's face hovered over Tony's shoulder. "Nay, he's been imprisoned in the dungeon along with my friends of Asgard."

Clint hesitated. "…Do I want to know what happened?"

"Oh, you know, things." Tony waved him off, though the other Avenger couldn't see it. "Steve doesn't have the Infinity Syrup anymore. Mark 26 went boom. We've committed high treason to Asgard. The usual stuff. Also, Loki is dead."

"…Are you _shitting_ me? YAHOOO! Tasha, Bruce!" He called them over, nearly shouting. Tony could hear Natasha sigh. "Loki is _dead!_ "

Thor's face twisted in raw pain.

The wind forced them to seek shelter in the first cave they could find, though the Asgardian was even more upset at the thought of leaving Loki's body there on the dusty ground. Steve nudged him with his shoulder and left his expression earnest. If Thor wanted to talk about it, Steve would always be here to listen.

"Smooth, Clint. You're hurting Thor's feelings."

"…Still. _Loki_ is _dead_."

"Aye, and he went down fighting alongside us."

"What the _fuck_? Why the hell was he fighting with you? Against who? Why now that- _shit!_ " There was a strange sucking sound from the other end of the line. "...Nat, is that what I think it is?"

"Yes, Clint," was her blank answer, "that's a battle-axe made of ice."

"The Convergence will soon be reaching its peak!" Thor exclaimed, taking the phone from Tony's hands. "My friends, we need to find the Dark Elf Malekith before he uses the Aether to bring the Nine Realms into darkness-"

They fell.

.

They landed onto a parquet to the sound of people screaming.

"Oh my- _Thor_!"

The god of thunder rose to his feet, almost tripping over his mantle. "Lady Jane," he whispered as his eyes widened. "I-"

She slapped him as Steve and Tony got up, both wincing at their own injuries. "Where were _you_?" She gave a once-over at her love and raised her eyebrows. "What _happened_ to you? Why are you-" Jane pointed at the two human Avengers, "-here?"

Tony recovered first. "We're, uh, tracking down a powered-up alien who wants to plunge the whole universe into darkness but, you know, we need to stop him before he actually does that. By the way, how was your day, Doctor Foster? Had fun chasing portals?"

She blinked at them, jaw hanging partially open.

"Doctor Foster," Steve greeted with a nod, patting down the dust on his uniform. Thank God his shield followed him. "Doctor Selvig, miss Darcy, uhm…"

"Ian," the younger unknown man said. He extended a hand. Steve shook it automatically. "Are you… _Captain America_?"

Steve nodded just as the other three chorused, "Yes."

"If the stars and stripes weren't clue enough…" Tony muttered, shrugging. He turned to Jane. "So, you were studying the Convergence-"

"How did you know that?" She blurted out. "I told _nobody_ but them."

"Heimdall told us," answered Thor, cringing slightly at her glare. Would Midgardians consider that 'stalking'? "And friend Tony was right – we must stop Malekith before he accomplishes what he set out to."

Jane narrowed her eyes further. "And? What is your plan?"

"Oh no, Mr. Tall and Blond is _not_ planning anything anytime soon," Tony chided, wagging his finger back and forth. "Last time he did that – which was two minutes ago – the big baddie got magic pixie dust powerful enough to suck all light out of the Nine Realms, _we_ almost died and Loki _actually_ died."

" _Loki_ is dead?" Erik Selvig asked. Was he… without his pants? "Thank God."

Thor stared at him like a huge, sad, kicked puppy.

"Uh, I meant… I'm so sorry." The old man cleared his throat and hugged the god, though he was still smiling. "Still, we've been studying the Convergence and- you said this guy wants to bring darkness to the whole universe? With pixie dust?"

Tony shrugged and nodded. "Yeah."

"It's called Aether," Steve corrected, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms, "and it's incredibly powerful."

"Then – what's his name? – Malekith is going to fire the Aether at a spot where all the nine world are connecting," Jane concluded. "He'll get two birds with one stone."

"Or nine Realms with one shot of Aether," Tony added, earning a kick on his shin by Captain America. He yelped and pouted at his friend. Steve looked back without an ounce of regret.

"For each additional world, the power will increase exponentially." Selvig stared blankly at them as he took off his glasses. "The effect would be universal."

Thor nodded. "Yes, but the alignment is only temporary. He must in exactly the right place at the right time."

"Well," said Darcy, "how do we know where that is?"

Selvig got up from his chair. "We follow the directions," he stated, grabbing a map of Great Britain from somewhere near him. "This has happened before, thousands of years ago – the Ancients-"

"I'm sure this is a very interesting history lesson, Doctor," Tony immediately interrupted him, "but to make a long story short, where will Malekith be? We're on a tight schedule."

Erik looked a bit put out at the attitude, but he did make his story short. "The Ancients left us a map after they made use of the effects of the Convergence. A map…" he started drawing lines with a ruler on the map, "that will take us… here."

Ian looked over his shoulder. "Greenwich?"

"The walls between worlds will be almost non-existent. Physics is going to go _ballistic._ " Jane breathed out and put a hand on her forehead. "Increases and decreases in gravity, spatial extrusions… The very fabric of reality is going to be torn apart."

Mjolnir flew straight into Thor's hand from its spot on the floor. "I'm ready," he bit out. His expression was ominous like the sound of thunder in a pitch-black sky – he was seeking revenge for both his mother and his brother, and nobody would stop him if they held dear their lives.

"I better get my pants." Selvig hurried to his room.

Steve looked at Tony.

"Hmm? Oh, right." The billionaire grabbed his friend's phone from one of his pockets. He called a number they both had registered. He didn't wait for Clint to say anything.

"Avengers Assemble!"

.

"'Avengers Assemble' _where_ , Tin Can?"

Tony groaned. "Avengers Assemble in Greenwich, alien ruler-wannabe with Aether and darkness fetish, you've still got six-odd hours to get there. Come on, Barton, we've got better timing now than three months ago with the Kraken!"

Clint grimaced at the memory. Ugh, the Kraken.

"And bring my Mark 25 suit!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure."

.

"What would I do to connect Jarvis to those gravitational poles."

"Not enough time, Iron Man." Steve rolled his shoulders. He felt a bit better after almost four hours of sleep. He could ignore the pain. "Darcy, Ian – plant those things around the campus."

The two interns chorused a "Yes, sir," and ran away with six gravitational poles and a hammer. Ian whispered something like, "I got orders from _Captain America_!", which Captain America ignored.

"Jane, Selvig, find a good spot from which you can control those poles."

The two astrophysicists nodded and hurried in the same direction as Darcy and Ian.

"Thor, look out for any Harrow Ships flying around."

The god of thunder nodded and flew up the nearest building to have a bird eye's view.

Tony was still without his armor. He tapped his foot impatiently. "What do I do, Cap?"

"Until Widow, Hawkeye and Banner get here with your suit, we're going to evacuate everyone inside the University." Steve glanced at the four white buildings around them. He hoped they could get everyone out of harm's way. "After you get the suit, if Malekith hasn't shown up already, scan the area around the campus and report anything we need to know about."

Tony saluted sloppily with a mumbled, "Aye aye, Captain," and took off running to the nearest building (library?). Steve ran in the opposite direction.

.

From his cell, Heimdall saw the Avengers assembling once more.

The civilians were led away from where the fight would take place – even though they wanted to record every disappearing/appearing flock of birds, gust of wind and surreal gravity pull that made the women's hair float in weird directions. There were cars hovering over the ground, for Odin's sake, and they were _poking_ them.

"Which is _exactly_ why you must get away from here!" Iron Man yelled at them.

Humans, ignoring every warning and diving head-first into danger since forever.

.

Malekith arrived ten minutes before the sixth hour.

"Guys, I see him!" Iron Man told his comrades. "There, over the Thames!"

Hawkeye nocked an arrow on his bow and released it. "Got it."

The electrified arrow turned off the camouflage, at least, so the Avengers (and Heimdall) could see clearly the T-shaped Ark (the mother-ship), tearing into the ground.

"Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, stop the ship!" ordered Captain America. The three Avengers destroyed the glowing red engine with an uni-beam from the Arc reactor, a mighty blow of Mjolnir and a thorough smashing by Hulk. The spaceship stuttered to a stop and they began attacking the elevator-like device on its front.

The Aether hurled them away onto the campus buildings.

"I'm detecting forty elves inside that thing," Iron Man reported, already pushing himself off the debris and flying upwards, "and Malekith is there with the Aether."

The Captain nodded. "Widow and I will deal with the Dark Elves on foot. Iron Man, Thor and Hulk, you'll keep Malekith occupied for at least the next nine minutes. Hawkeye, get as many shots in as you can." He breathed out as the Dark Elves started pouring out of the ship. "Avengers Assemble!"

Tony instantly fired missiles at the group of aliens. They started shooting back, covering their leader.

"Hey! No shooting back allowed on campus!" He flew over one of the buildings, up into the sky, spun in midair and turned back to blast those damn aliens off his planet. "Thirty-" Clint shot two elves through their throats. " _Twenty-eight_ non-powered elves left, c'mon guys! Let's wrap this- _Fuck_!" He spun to his right a few times and soared higher, trying to outrun the crimson dust of the Aether.

Steve slammed his shield on two other Dark Elves. "Iron Man, status!"

"All limbs attached, the Aether just jump-scared me." That thing wasn't giving up, was it. "Thor, a little lightning!"

The Hulk roared and slammed into the Aether, shifting Malekith's focus to him.

"That works too, Jolly Green, but-"

The Hulk was thrown away into the Thames.

"-yeah, that."

"Iron Man, focus!" Steve snapped. "Get the Hulk out of the water and stick to the plan!"

In midair, Thor spun Mjolnir and called streaks of lightning onto his weapon before releasing them on the Dark Elf. Malekith stumbled at the onslaught of electricity, but he didn't die. At least it slowed down the Aether coming after Iron Man, allowing him to blast off other dark elves.

Thor landed in front of Malekith, glaring daggers at him.

"You needn't have come so far, Asgardian," the latter said. "Death would've come to you soon enough."

Thor gripped Mjolnir tighter. "Not by _your_ hand."

"That's it, Thor, keep the guy still," Clint murmured as he let another one of his arrows go.

Malekith raised the Aether like a shield around him. He didn't stop staring at Thor. "Your universe was never meant to be. Your world and your family will be extinguished, no matter what tricks-"

The arrow blew up. Malekith let out a surprised scream.

Hawkeye snorted, cocking another arrow on his bow. "They fall for it _every_ time."

"FOOLS!" The Dark Elf spread the Aether in every direction – it knocked back Thor, Iron Man and Hulk and it followed the arrow's trajectory back to the archer. "HOW DARE YOU MIDGARDIANS ATTACK MALEKITH, RULER OF DARKNESS?!"

The SHIELD agent jumped off the building's roof onto the nearest balcony. The Aether kept following him. He ran for his life. "Aw, come _on!_ "

Black Widow broke the neck of a Dark Elf with her thighs, rolled over a car and shot her Widow Bites at the Aether. It recoiled and slowed down, allowing Hawkeye to pick another spot to shoot his arrow from. "That thing's weak against electricity!" she confirmed and hid out of Malekith's sight when the Aether started flying after her.

"Good to know!" Tony glanced heavenwards at the huge portals aligning over them. "We still got seven minutes to keep him busy! Iron Man to Astro Crew, how are you doing with the gravitational poles?"

"Almost done!" Jane answered. "Just waiting until Darcy and Ian-"

"Done!"

"Grab onto something!" Jane turned a dial on her hastily-assembled remote controller, making a group of six elves disappear.

"That's awesome!" Darcy shouted into Ian's phone. "How did you do that?!"

"Well, the gravitational fields interact with weak spots between worlds, creating-"

"Foster, less science talk and more teleporting!" Captain America kicked one more Dark Elf in the head and turned to the Harrow Ship still stuck into the ground. "More elves are coming your way!"

"Ooh, get the guy with the sword!"

At Darcy's suggestion, Jane turned another dial – making Darcy and Ian disappear. "Oops…?"

Tony sighed as he blasted holes into the Aether and blew up the incoming elves with two missiles. "They're still on Earth, just three hundred meters from your position, on the street."

"Right. Thanks."

Selvig took the controller away from Jane's hands. "Let's go."

.

A warning flashed in front of Iron Man's face. "Thor, gravitational change near you!"

Hawkeye tried to get a shot in on Malekith – who was avoiding Mjolnir's lightning and swings and Hulk's fists – and saw his arrow get sucked into the portal Iron Man had found. "You could have told me before!"

"Sorry not sorry, Birdbrain- damn, my repulsor blasts, too?" Tony quickly took to the air before he could get sucked inside the invisible portal. "Guys, the gravitational pull of that portal is about-"

Thor, Hulk, Malekith and a whole bunch of cars got sucked in.

"Damn it."

"Iron Man, Widow, Hawkeye," Captain America called, "let's stop the remaining Dark Elves. When Malekith returns, blast him off the planet."

"You know what, Cap? I like this new plan."

.

The people in the higher floors of the Swiss Re Tower didn't believe their eyes when a roaring Hulk, Thor (the God of Thunder himself) and another alien flew down the building, shattering many glass panes on their way down.

.

"Confirming ship is hostile."

"Confirmed, ship is hostile. You have permission to engage."

"Roger- is that _Iron Man_?" the pilot looked on in disbelief as the inimitable red-and-gold armor flew in front of him, waving his arms above his head. What was he-

"Whatever the fuck you're gonna do," Iron Man's voice screamed inside his plane, having overridden his PA system, "don't get _here_! The gravitational pull-"

Iron Man was sucked away into a green portal and the connection was lost.

"Falcon 1, status."

The pilot shook his head and veered away from the portal. That couldn't be good. "I've got visual on the target. Missiles locked. Missiles away."

The missiles disappeared in midair. What the hell?!

"Missiles off-target. I repeat, target missed." Something was pulling him into the portal, but the jet's engines were strong enough to get him outside its gravitational pull (according to Iron Man) in time. Thank God he listened to the superhero.

"Falcon 1 returning to base," he stated, "I'm not paid enough for dealing with upside-down gravity and alien ships. The _Avengers_ are."

.

"Fuck!"

Tony spun to avoid the missiles (?) that had appeared out of nowhere, which then landed onto the forest below in a fiery explosion.

"Jarvis, where the _fuck_ are we?!" He shouted at his AI.

"According to Mark 26's scans," Jarvis answered, "this is Vanaheim, sir."

Tony groaned. " _Nobody_ 's even _paying_ me to deal with this shit! Jarv, let's find a portal back home before we get stuck in here!"

.

Thor and Hulk almost fell on Malekith when they fell on Jotunheim.

A beast roared behind them, advancing menacingly out of its cave.

Hulk roared back.

The beast jumped forward, making the icy platform under their feet crumble and fall into another portal – along with the four of them.

.

Jane and Selvig were running away from another group of four Dark Elves when Natasha dropped on the last one and electrified him with her Stingers.

The three other elves turned around to shoot at them when Hawkeye dropped on the first one, digging a knife in its throat, and Captain America barreled into the two left standing. They fell to the ground and Steve smashed the elves' skulls in with his shield.

"Are you alright?"

"We are, but not for long," Jane said, pointing at the center of the university campus. Malekith was standing there. Thor, Hulk and Iron Man were nowhere to be seen. "We're out of time."

The three Avengers, Jane and Selvig saw Malekith raising his hands to the sky, the Aether swirling ominously around him like a crimson tornado.

Steve's eyes widened. "Iron Man, Thor, get here ASAP! The Convergence is taking place!"

Clint nocked an arrow in his bow, but after a moment of thought he shook his head. "Cap, the wind's too strong to shoot arrows. I'd risk hitting someone else."

"Same thing with my Widow Bites," Natasha commented. "We need someone to get inside the Aether and defeat Malekith, somehow."

Steve grimaced. He could try to get inside, if the wind didn't knock him flat on his ass. And then what?

Thor flew down beside them with Mjolnir in his hand. Tony crash-landed a second later, commenting how "I need to make Mark 27 pterodactyl-proof, make a note, Jarvis." He got up and saw the red cyclone in the middle of the campus. "What the _fuck_ did I miss?!"

"Thor!" Jane shouted over the wind. "We're too late!"

"The Convergence is at its peak," Selvig added.

Tony looked at the gravitational poles in the astrophysicist's hands. "If you use those things right, they could stop him – teleport him into another Realm."

"Not from here."

"We can't throw them," Clint commented, looking sideways at Thor, "and we can't get close enough, unless…"

"I can." Thor squared his shoulders and gritted his teeth, taking the three metal poles from Selvig's hands. "I must do this, or all will be lost to darkness."

Steve was sure Thor was thinking about avenging Queen Frigga and Loki, too. Thor was taking literally the meaning of being an Avenger.

The Hulk jumped down to them, cracking the rocks under his enormous feet and scaring both Jane and Selvig. "Hulk smash?" he asked.

"No Hulk smash," Steve said, shaking his head. He turned to Thor. "Go."

.

Thor pushed his way through the Aether. Busy as he was spreading the Infinity Stone in all the Nine Realms, Malekith didn't notice his approach.

"Malekith!"

He turned around.

"Darkness returns, Asgardian. Have you come to witness the end of your universe?"

Thor smirked darkly. "I've come to avenge my mother and my brother," he said and threw one of the poles at Malekith, who caught it with one hand. The idiot.

The pole beeped and teleported Malekith's right arm away.

Thor threw the other, which pierced the Dark Elf's left shoulder and made his left arm disappear. He didn't care where they ended up – Malekith had to _suffer_ for all he has done.

"You think you can stop this?" Malekith dared him, parts of the Aether taking the form of his missing limbs. "The Aether cannot be destroyed!"

"But you can."

The Aether couldn't spread in the Nine Realms and defend Malekith at the same time – the Dark Elf would have been long dead, had his lackeys not protected him. So Thor ran at him, lightning surging inside Mjolnir and sparks flying out of his hammer, and drove the pole in Malekith's chest as he slammed him away with Mjolnir.

Malekith flew backwards, out of the Aether-nado – as Iron Man was so helpfully commenting – and into the Ark.

Jane turned a dial on her device and Malekith screamed.

He disappeared, and the Aether along with him.

.

The Avengers ran to their Asgardian friend.

"Jarvis, gimme a scan," Tony said, out of breath.

Steve had turned Thor's – _unconscious, how could he be unconscious_ – body so it was lying face-up. He put two fingers under his friend's jaw, on his carotid, and sighed in relief when he found a pulse.

"Mr. Odinson appears to have taken a hit to the head," Jarvis answered, "but there is no lasting damage the scanners can pick up, sir. What the scanners do find dangerous, is-"

The Ark rumbled ominously.

"Guys, let's move it the fuck outta here!" Clint shouted and started running to the nearest building, but was soon picked up by Hulk along with Natasha. Steve put Thor's body on his shoulders and was following the other Avengers when Tony flew into him to speed him up. Jane and Selvig had just rounded the corner of a building when they saw what was happening.

The alien spaceship started falling – it missed a good chunk of its base, after all – but it disappeared into another portal just before it could crash onto the ground and destroy what was left standing of the campus.

"Everyone okay?" Erik Selvig asked, grinning from ear to ear.

.

Heimdall watched with no little amount of vicious satisfaction as the Ark fell into Svartalfheim, right on top of Malekith.

 _This_ is what Avenging should look like.

.

 _"_ _-so the alien conqueror Malekith has been defeated by the Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The current death toll is zero – a new record and a refreshing change from the casualties of the Battle of Manhattan earlier this year. This was possible only because the Avengers had evacuated Greenwich University before the battle began-"_

"Jarvis, mute the news." Tony sipped his coffee and breathed out. "Hear this? This is the sweet sound of 'now that you saved the world, sleep for a whole week'."

Natasha lounged on the couch of the common floor. "Knowing you, you'd spend a week working on another suit instead of sleeping."

"Hey-"

"That's Tony for you," Clint agreed, nodding.

Tony pouted. "…It's not my fault my newest suit _blew up in another Realm_." Cue his pointed look at Steve, who had hoarded every Oreo box he could get his hands on – aka _a lot_ of Oreo boxes – and God forbid someone took a cookie away from him. Tony would never forget the possessive growl Steve aimed at him, clutching his Oreos close to his chest.

Thor did say the Aether would take a lot out of him – "drawing life force out of its host" kind of thing – but Steve could have asked for more food instead of waking up at the crack of dawn and hoarding _every damn cookie_ of the Tower. He didn't touch Thor's pop-tarts or Natasha's chocolate chips, at least, but nobody did that if they wanted to keep their organs inside their bodies.

(Tony privately thought that Steve could get away with the pop-tarts if he used his Kicked Puppy Look on Thor. He didn't know about Natasha.)

"Wait." Tony gulped down half his mug of coffee. Bruce was probably sleeping the morning away, Natasha and Clint were in the living room leaving crumbs all over his nice carpet and Steve was stuffing himself full of Oreos. "Where is Thor?"

"Gone to Asgard," Steve mumbled. He swallowed the cookies he was chewing. "He's talking to Odin right now. We did commit _high treason_ on our way out, after all, and it's not the kind of thing that's easily forgotten."

"We saved the _Nine Realms_!" Tony would have flailed his arms if he had the will to. And if his coffee wouldn't splash on his nice floor. " _That_ 's not something they can easily forget, either. The Avengers saved the _universe_ from a megalomaniac alien with Infinity Pixie Dust!"

"That 'Pixie Dust' almost killed us, Tin Can."

"Exactly!" Tony whirled around, snapping his fingers. Steve grimaced and ate some more cookies. "Everyone looks down on us puny humans. Every future conqueror-wannabe had damn better stop underestimating us!"

.

Now reinstated as the guardian of the Bifrost, Heimdall couldn't agree more.

.

 **Next up: Strange Stuff Happens and Oh, What's Extremis?**


	3. Chapter 3

**14k words for this Chapter! Getting further and further with the Avengers adventure...**

 **Also, starting from this chapter, the MCU timeline is officially getting shredded to teeny tiny bits. Some things go to hell, others are about to, the Avengers are at their busiest.**

 **As for warnings: allusions to past torture, forced exposure to freezing temperatures for torture, possible OOC-ness.**

 **.**

 **Tattletale**

 **Chapter 3**

 **.**

Heimdall watched as the Avengers' mission continued for two months.

Each time they broke into an AIM building, they took and 'downloaded' every file they could get their hands on and examined it inside Avengers Tower. Whenever they (usually, Steve Rogers) had to write a report, they made sure it got into SHIELD hands, not HYDRA's. When Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye were assigned a mission, they stubbornly refused to work alongside HYDRA agents.

"For the third time, Barton, I don't give a _fuck_ if you think Rumlow's gear _stinks!_ " Fury snapped at them, tightening his fists on his desk. "You either accept this mission and work with the STRIKE team, or I'll kick you all out of SHIELD!"

Steve nodded curtly. Heimdall could see that he was actually considering leaving SHIELD behind, but then they wouldn't get any SHIELD intel without Tony's hacking. Not to mention all the breaking-in they'd have to do to get anywhere near a SHIELD base. "Very well, sir. We accept."

The three Avengers kept to themselves during every moment of the mission. They shot down every attempt at conversation the STRIKE team directed their way. They relayed only the information they needed in that instant. Being the Captain, Steve ordered Rumlow to make a diversion as far away from the files they needed to retrieve from a terrorist base in Tunisia.

(Meanwhile, Bruce was still trying to create a truth serum in the hopes they could get HYDRA to reveal themselves in public. As for the first test, it just gave Tony "one hell of a headache, Jarv, if I go into a coma you, Pepper, Rhodey and the Avengers inherit everything I've got. Did I ever tell you I love you?")

Jasper Sitwell wanted the USB drive on which the three Avengers had saved the terrorists' information. They refused to give it to him, and they agreed with Natasha when she insisted that "Director Fury wanted this info, so we're giving this info _directly to him_."

To which the Director replied, "What the fuck is up with you these days?"

Clint shrugged. "Trust issues."

Fury narrowed his good eye at him. "I already knew that. What I _don't_ know, is why three of my top agents don't trust the people they have trusted until last year." He leaned over his desk. "And I don't like _not knowing_."

"We're just taking your orders to the letter, sir," Steve stated, his stance not once changing from parade rest.

Fury let out a breath through his nose, still glaring at the three of them. "I don't know what game you're playing _yet_ ," he said, pointing his index finger at them, "but I _order you_ to tell me _why_ you don't trust Sitwell and Rumlow."

"Well, Director Fury," Clint began, "have you _looked_ at Sitwell? Like, really? He's got this air around him…"

"He stinks," added Natasha, nodding at Fury's unimpressed stare, "and not in the literal sense."

"This new world I woke up in always treads between black and white," Steve stated, now moving his hands to his belt, "in a forever gray area. Rumlow and his team tend to go overboard on the black side more often than not."

"Let's call it… collective gut instinct, sir." Clint smiled grimly.

Fury stared at them, annoyed beyond measure. "Then I _order_ you to _trust_ them, since you seem to like taking orders to the letter. Barton, Romanoff," the two agents looked remotely more attentive at being called, "you weren't trusted either until you proved your loyalty to SHIELD, and Sitwell has worked here for almost as long as you. And you, Rogers," he turned to Captain America, "should know that when you're given a team, you. Work. With. _Them_. Am I understood?"

Barely hiding their scowls, the three Avengers chorused, "Yes, sir."

.

"The Angry Pirate did _what?_ "

Steve growled at the 'Stark Punching Bag Mark 5' and kept punching it. "He wants us to trust Sitwell and Rumlow."

Tony snorted. "Yeah, as if. At least I can lock people out of my lab or annoy the hell out of them until they get out of their own will… with their own legs. You got the short end of the stick this time, Cap."

"We must find solid proof of HYDRA's existence." The blond's punches became more vicious. "Strike them down. Show Fury what was happening right under his damn nose."

"Oooor," Tony dragged out, " _I_ may have added a hidden protocol into the Insight Helicarriers that allows me and Jarvis to remotely choose the targets, you know, in case we need to pick off the last assholes of HYDRA-"

The punching bag flew off its hook and slammed onto the floor.

Steve glared at Tony. "Those Helicarriers are _not_ flying as long as I still breathe."

Tony frowned. "Never hurts to have a Plan B, Cap. Or a Plan C."

Steve breathed in and out, evidently calming himself down. He started unwrapping the bandages around his hands. "We can't wait two years to defeat HYDRA, Tony," he said, and he sounded so _tired_. "We must do something before the Helicarriers get up in the sky. We must do something before Fury barges in to demand answers or – God forbid – Pierce knows something's wrong and tries to take over SHIELD with his HYDRA agents."

"…You're reconsidering telling Fury, aren't you." It wasn't a question.

" _If_ we tell him, he must believe us and don't tell Pierce." Steve tossed his bandages on his personal rack of gym stuff. "That's why we need to find concrete evidence of HYDRA. We can't just tell him that Heimdall told us. We can't just tell him that Project Insight is HYDRA's, because he already knows about it and is doing nothing to stop it. We didn't find anything about Project Centipede yet. The Winter Soldier is a myth at best for Fury. Operation Paperclip only proves that SHIELD had recruited some 'ex-HYDRA' scientists. What have we to show him?"

Tony didn't know… yet.

Heimdall should feel annoyed his word wouldn't be believed, but he couldn't entirely fault the Captain. Midgard had met only three so-called aliens, and two of them (Loki and Malekith) tried to conquer/destroy their civilization within one day of their arrival, while the other (Thor) accidentally destroyed a small town when the Destroyer was sent there. It wouldn't be a wonder if Fury didn't believe him.

Maybe the Director of SHIELD could ask him something nobody should know? Or would he consider it a leak, an error in his system, and inadvertently tip off HYDRA about the Avengers' secret mission?

"Well," the billionaire hesitantly said, "you're an expert on most HYDRA matters, so if you say someone is HYDRA… technically, nobody has the right to tell you you're wrong. You're like the ultimate HYDRA hunter."

Steve sighed. "Tony, I was convinced HYDRA died with the Red Skull. Even if I did start pointing fingers, Pierce could tell the rest of SHIELD that I'm just 'projecting my grief and anger over this morally ambiguous world onto the nearest human being', and in the meantime he'd plot our assassinations."

"Uh." Tony blinked at him. "So, we just need to find some 'Hail Hydra's and/or proof we can show Fury."

The other Avenger nodded and the two of them went back to the elevator.

.

"FUCK YES!"

Thor stopped eating his pop-tarts to look at Tony. "What… happened, friend Tony?"

The owner of the tower ran up to the god of thunder, nearly tripping on the table behind the couch. "I know how to prove to Fury that octopi are bad for everyone's health!" he shouted. "Jarvis, Protocol 3 AM!"

"Protocol 3 AM in act, sir," the AI announced as the windows darkened and the elevators going up to the Avengers Quarters – the last fifteen floors of the Tower – were denied access.

Tony restlessly gestured to Thor. "You, Big Guy, you will go to your friend Heimdall and ask him where the hell is the Winter Soldier. No holograms of people to identify, no files to find the discrepancies in – just the coordinates and details of where they keep the Winter Soldier. We find the poor guy, help him break out of his brainwashing and, when he won't try to stab us in our sleep 'cause of the brainwashing, we tell Fury to haul ass over here and we tell him about HYDRA. How does it sound? Good, great, excellent, right?"

Thor blinked at him. "Aye, your plan sounds… feasible."

"Ow, come _on_!" Tony groaned. "It's _brilliant_! We save the Winter Soldier from those assholes _and_ prove to Fury we're not hopeless nutcases! And then we'll have the Angry Pirate working _with_ us instead of _against_ us! He won't try to annoy the hell outta Captain Righteous, Birdbrain and Natasha by pairing them with HYDRA agents!"

"That'd be a great step in the right direction, my friend," Thor agreed, smiling. He had seen how angry his shield-brothers were after their mission. "We could also warn the Son of Coul, as well as Lady Hill. They'd be essential allies in our quest to defeat HYDRA." He nodded and stood up. "I shall depart for Asgard this instant!"

Heimdall was relieved all the Nine Realms approved of the Avengers' hard work to save the universe – otherwise the All-father would have locked his son up in the dungeon because of all these travels between Midgard and Asgard.

.

"Captain Rogers?"

"Yes, Jarvis?" Steve turned his gaze to the ceiling, his pencil still hovering over his drawing of Bucky. "What is it?"

"Sir has called the Avengers Assemble in the Planning Floor," the AI answered. "He has also activated Protocol 3 AM in advance."

Steve frowned and put away his notebook and pencils. Whatever Tony discovered could either be a godsend or a one-way ticket straight to hell, and it had to do with HYDRA – which meant that it probably was the latter.

All the other Avengers were already on the Planning Floor (because they needed a better place for talking about plans than the living room), discussing… infiltration strategies… to get inside a locked-down HYDRA facility… in Alaska?

"What's in Alaska?" Steve asked, and everyone turned around to look at him. Natasha and Clint probably already knew he was behind them. Maybe Thor, too, with his Asgardian senses.

"Capsicle!" Tony greeted him, spreading his arms. "I know how to prove to Fury HYDRA still exists and is a threat!"

"Let's hear it." Steve walked up to the huge round glass table, around which the other Avengers were gathered. An ink black Avengers 'A' was printed into the glass, which still worked as a hologram projector.

"We need to find the Winter Soldier," said Tony, "and I've already asked Thor to ask Heimdall who told us he's here," he gestured to a place in Alaska near Coldfoot, which Jarvis kindly zoomed. "Just five miles away from this- not city, not exactly, with only ten people. There is a facility built mostly underground – HYDRA has disguised it as some kind of artic fauna research center – and it's… _moderately_ guarded, a piece of cake for our super-powered selves, but we must make sure HYDRA can't trace the steps back to us, which means no Iron Man, no Hulk, no God of Thunder, and no Captain America." He pouted. "And no Aveng-jet. Or SHIELD-issued quinjet."

"This just means we have to disguise ourselves, Stark," Natasha stated. "Instead of the stars and stripes, Steve can wear non-descript dark clothing and carry no shield. Thor is a powerhouse even without Mjolnir. You can still get into their system and disable alarms, jam their cameras and free the Winter Soldier without destroying anything. Clint can make do with guns instead of arrows." She smirked when Clint pouted and she turned to Bruce. "I'm afraid Hulk is a bit too conspicuous, but we could use a hand on our way out of there."

Bruce offered a half-smile-half-grimace. "I'm afraid I can't pilot anything."

"We could use a truck," Clint suggested. "You know, 'cause that place is a truck station, basically. A truck isn't gonna raise any red flags. And you can drive a truck, right, Bruce?"

The doctor shuffled his feet. "Unless we get into a car chase, yes, I can."

Clint clapped his hands. "Boom! Done! We got a way in and a way out. Now, for the middle – any ideas?"

"What do we know of the building?" asked Steve. "Of the security system? Cameras, guard shifts, supply runs and timetables?"

"The building," Natasha replied, enlarging an holographic structure meant to be the fake research center, "has four floors – ground floor, and three others under it. Every entrance of every floor has one camera – and the control room is in the last floor."

"Heimdall told me the Soldier of Winter is kept prisoner at the bottom of the building," added Thor. "There is a total of twenty guards. Two oversee the ground floor; five each for the first two underground floors, and the last eight keep watch in the last floor."

"But of course, the twenty armed HYDRA lackeys aren't the only company we'll meet – there are also twelve researchers in the building, and two of them are actual non-HYDRA zoologists." Tony pulled up two pictures, a man with a scar on his chin and a raven-haired woman. "Jarvis borrowed a military satellite for a few seconds and saw other heat signatures in the underground floors, but we have no idea if they're other animals or humans. Could be a mix for all we know."

"The building has three access routes – the main door with one guard, the supply access with the other guard, and the emergency door if we can disable the alarm on it."

"And the air vent on the roof."

"And the air vent on the roof," Natasha added, nodding at Clint. "The supply access is guarded at all times, though we could get Bruce to drop us there if we can put the cameras on loop and disable the alarm before someone can ring it." She leaned back on her chair. "The only thing we need to decide now is how to steal the Winter Soldier without having anyone recognize us."

"What's the plan, Star Spangled Man?" Tony grinned at him.

.

 _Two days later_

Another boring afternoon.

Another truck.

Another delivery.

Wait, delivery?

Isaac frowned at the timetable in front of him. There was no delivery scheduled until three hours later. "What did you say you are bringing here?"

A man cocooned in more scarves and fur coats than Isaac had expected poked his head out of the truck. "New cages for fauna and hunting equipment," he answered, grimacing. "But I'm too early on the schedule, am I?"

Isaac examined the timetable. Yes, the new cages and hunting tools were supposed to arrive in another three hours. "For once, yes. Are you new?"

The man shuffled in his seat. "Yes. Just started a few weeks ago with simple deliveries down south. Much warmer."

"I feel you," Isaac sagely said, nodding. Ah, what would he do for warmer weather. "Go 'round the building until you find Igor waiting for the cages. Tell him it's an early delivery for once."

The driver nodded back. "Thanks."

.

"Didn't know you had it in you, Jolly. You're a born actor."

The doctor's cheeks reddened. At least his blue scarf hid that from his 'Science bro'. "When you get into the same situations as me, you have to pick up a few acting skills," he murmured.

Tony hummed.

"Ace, did you connect to the facility's cameras?" Steve asked, using the codenames they had agreed upon before leaving. He was Knight, Natasha was Queen, Clint was Knave, Thor was King, Bruce was Jolly and Tony was Ace. Their names were too conspicuous when spoken in the same place.

"Of course, Knight, who did you take me for?" Tony snorted and kept typing away on his keyboard. "Just say the word and nobody's gonna know what hit 'em."

Instead of cages and hunting equipment, Tony had set up a small (hidden) Arc reactor to power a "not Stark Tech and consequently laughably outdated" computer, Jarvis and… a whole lot of other things involving wireless signals that Steve wasn't sure how they worked. Heimdall just knew they did work.

The Captain nodded. "Queen and Knave?"

"We're good," the two spies/assassins chorused.

They left behind Natasha's Stingers and Widow Bites and Clint's bow and arrows, just as they left Steve's shield, Thor's hammer and Tony's suits behind. All of them carried knives and guns that Tony had previously sold, so their ownership could be blamed to theft or black market dealings instead of the truth – that Tony dusted off the part of his life he was still atoning for just to give them Stark-approved equipment.

(Of course, it was better if they didn't use the guns. Less clues that could lead HYDRA back to them.)

"King?"

Thor just nodded. They had agreed that, since the Allspeak would be a dead giveaway, Thor had to talk only if strictly necessary. Preferably not at all.

"Cages and hunting equipment?" the other guard – Igor – asked Bruce. "Alright."

Steve advanced to the back of the truck, ready to jump on the enemy and knock him out. He mentally counted the steps of the guard and ticked off the seconds until-

Bam! The guard sported a newly-broken nose and probably a concussion. Steve lowered the unconscious body out of the camera's view, just in case. "You know what to do."

All the Avengers nodded. Clint climbed up the roof to reach the air vents, Natasha blended into the shadows inside the building and Thor and Steve struck as many guards and scientists as possible (aka everyone but the two non-HYDRA zoologists) to clear their way out. Bruce was ready to drive the truck away and Tony made sure he and Jarvis stayed inside the building's security system, looping the footage of before their arrival, jamming the alarms and occasionally warning his teammates of HYDRA agents around the corner.

Fortunately for them, the two zoologists would be out in the field for another two hours – according to the timetable hung near the main door.

"Knave in the first basement," Clint whispered. "It's… colder. Those poor animals. They keep those poor guys locked in reinforced glass cages, bring in there all the cold wind from outside and then lower the temperature even further. Do you know how they get the cold inside the cages? Through the air vents."

"Don't be such a baby, Knave." There was the sound of necks breaking through Natasha's com. "Queen in first basement as well – now, if you want a show…"

The Russian spy hurled two knives into the back of two guards' necks and ran at the third with another blade in her hand. He didn't expect her to get in so close, and he got his throat slit for his trouble. The fourth and fifth guard raised their rifles and Steve and Thor knocked them both out cold from behind.

The three scientists on that same floor tried to ring the alarm, but they soon met their comrades' fate. The caged animals – brown bears, polar bears, caribous and moose for the most part – covered the sounds of their captors dying.

"Thanks." She nodded at the two blonds.

"Guys?" Tony called. "I've just rerouted the camera feeds from the second basement to here, and you're not gonna like this."

"What happened, Ace?"

"There are honest-to-God humans in those cages." Tony gritted his teeth. "They're forcing four people – three men and one woman – to endure freaking artic temperatures with skintight suits, and all four of them are going in hypothermia- according to my best pal, Willy Smith. There are other six people in there, too, locked in normal cages. Nine hostiles: five guards and four mad scientists."

Steve narrowed his eyes. "Queen and King, we'll disable the hostiles. Knave, you'll get these people out and help them not die of hypothermia."

"And where are gonna put them, Knight?" Tony asked. "There won't be any room for ten more people in the truck when you get back."

"There's another truck here," said Bruce, pointing to his left. Not that anyone could see him. "We'll just find the keys and help them escape if… if we can't do more."

"I wish we could." Steve breathed out. "Hypothermia is not something I'd wish on anyone. A good blow to the head is enough."

Of course Steve wouldn't wish that kind of death on anyone. He went through that himself, although he did get out alive eventually. "Then I suggest hitting those guards 'round the corner before-"

There was another sequence of necks breaking, skulls cracking, knives digging into flesh, people falling and people dying.

"Done," announced Natasha. "Queen, Knave, Knight and King in the second basement."

"Knave on Saving People Duty," said Clint. "Any chance you can disable the vents, Ace? I can't warm them up if the cold keeps coming in."

Tony typed a few commands on his keyboard. "Done and done. Reach the third basement before the guy on camera control duty realizes something's wrong with the system."

"On it," Steve said. He gestured to Natasha and Thor to follow him. "Come on."

.

Steve looked down at all the dead/unconscious HYDRA guards and scientists. "All hostiles down, ten hostages saved, mission halfway accomplished."

"And all in barely an hour of sneaking around," said Tony. He almost clapped his hands. "That's a new record, Card Crew. I'm proud of you."

Clint rolled his eyes as he threw a bunch of clothes at the ten shivering prisoners. "' _Card Crew'_? Really?"

"Shut it, I'm awesome."

"Focus," Steve ordered. He took an apparently normal USB drive out of one of his pockets and put it into the computer near the Winter Soldier's prison. "Ace, download everything you can get from this terminal."

"A terminal not linked to the security system? You tried to hide this from my all-seeing eyes, eh? Naughty boys."

"Cut the chatter, Ace."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Knight."

Steve sighed heavily. "Queen, can you open the door?"

The metal – steel? – door was presumably four inches thick – something that even Steve would have difficulty with, and Thor would have smashed to bits with Mjolnir if he had it. There was an electronic lock keeping it closed; a brand-new model, but Tony wasn't connected to it.

Natasha just stared at it. "A knife to the keypad usually works," she stated and handed Steve the thickest knife she had stowed on her person. She smirked, though no one but Heimdall could see it. "A single blow shouldn't electrify you, probably."

He rolled his eyes and stabbed the keypad, whose red light turned green once it finished sputtering sparkles. Natasha was right – as she always was.

The three Avengers stepped inside the room.

There was an opaque glass tube with mist gathered around its base, and a humanoid shape stuck inside it. There was a tangle of wires hooked up to the machine and to a second computer. On their right, there was a strange metal chair with ominous steel contraptions behind it. On their left, there was a metal dresser with six drawers.

"How do we get him out of there?" asked Steve. The place was 'giving him the creeps', as they would say on Midgard, but he steeled himself and kept his voice steady.

Thor punched his open left palm with his right hand and titled his head.

"No smashing, King," said Natasha, narrowing her eyes at the glass tube. "This… this is a cryogenic tank."

"Oh, Queen is right!" Tony confirmed, connecting to the camera inside the cell. "That's actually a cryo tank. I'd ask how you knew it before I told you, but you wouldn't answer me, would you?"

"Good, you're learning." Natasha ignored Tony's whine of "Why're you so cruel to me" and stepped up to the computer. "Oh, Russian commands," she commented. "So fun."

"Russian? Why Russian?"

"I have no idea, Ace." Steve waited beside Thor as Natasha turned on the machine and, mumbling to herself in Russian, managed to open the cryo tank. A blast of cold hit them and Steve shivered at the reminder of another ice in another time.

Natasha turned to them after a few more seconds of examining the screen in front of her. "His vitals are good – it doesn't look like we need to do anything in particular. Knight, search the drawers for anything of interest. King, help the frozen man out."

Steve was glad for the chance to get away from the cryogenic tank. He didn't like cold, not one bit.

Heimdall couldn't blame him for that – he had had his own experience with the Casket of Ancient Winters and had no intention to repeat it anytime soon. So he watched as the Captain followed the Widow's orders and found a red book with a grayed star on its front.

In the meantime Thor and Natasha helped the Winter Soldier out of the cryo tank. The prince held most of his weight, although the Soldier regained his strength with each second that passed. The man was soon standing up on his own.

The Winter Soldier was already dressed and ready to accomplish any mission his handlers would throw his way – he only needed a location, a target and, optionally, a weapon. He had a black mask over the lower half of his face and a pair of black goggles. The Captain wouldn't recognize him unless they took those things off his face.

He quickly glanced at each Avenger, searching for weapons and weaknesses. Each of them had a helmet, a whole-face mask, goggles and a black scarf, so they couldn't be recognized either. His gaze lingered warily on the red book in Steve's hands, though only Heimdall could see it.

"Следуйте за нами, солдат," Natasha ordered him and strode back to the entrance, flanked by Steve and Thor. The Winter Soldier obediently followed her up the stairs and into the Avengers' borrowed truck.

.

The Avengers eventually snuck back into their own Tower in the afternoon with the Winter Soldier in tow.

"Jarvis, Protocol 3 AM."

"Of course, sir." The Avengers Quarters were in lock down once more.

Tony clapped his hands. "So! I call first dibs on Robocop's arm."

Steve leveled a glare at his friend. "He's been brainwashed and tortured, Tony, can't you be serious for once? We need to help him first."

"In fact," the billionaire drawled, rolling his eyes, "I wanted to get out of his arm whatever dangerous shit HYDRA had put inside it. I've already took away the trackers on our way back – before we even left Alaska, of course, I'm not an idiot – but those assholes might have left a couple of unwanted surprises if, I don't know, we ask him to talk about HYDRA secrets."

"Then _why_ \- you know what? Never mind. I should be used to this by now." Steve rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Tony, do whatever you have to do with his metal arm, but don't hurt him with your 'tests'. Bruce, make sure the cryogenic tank didn't mess up with his body and brain. Natasha, Thor, stop him if he acts out because of the brainwashing. Clint, you've earned your rest after flying that deathtrap from Alaska to Pennsylvania and driving us back to New York."

The Avengers nodded and they were heading to the elevators when Jarvis announced, "Director Fury is attempting to call you. Shall I accept?"

"Natasha, Bruce, get the Winter Soldier to the medical floor," Steve ordered. Once the three of them were out of sight, the Captain told Jarvis to let Fury talk to them.

"'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' my _ass!_ " was the first thing Fury shouted at them. "You can't just ask for a day off out of the blue because you decided to have a _drinking contest_ with Asgardian mead!"

Steve barely resisted the urge to shoot a judgmental _look_ at Tony, who didn't even look remotely repentant. "It's not going to happen again, sir. I apologize on behalf of the whole team – we weren't in fighting shape today."

"I don't give a fuck about your apology, Captain!" Fury continued, hissing. "Two months ago you didn't warn SHIELD of yet another alien invasion and I let it slide only because you actually handled it well. Today I receive a call from Jarvis, who tells me the Avengers are roaring drunk – even _you_ , Captain Rogers, who shouldn't be _able_ to get drunk – and that you won't be able to answer any of my calls! Now _I_ want to know why the _fuck_ you pulled _this shit_."

"It was my fault," both Tony and Thor said at the same time. Tony gestured Thor to speak first.

"I had recently brought a barrel of the best mead from my home," the prince began, "to toast with my shield-brothers to the day I spilled the Jotun blood of Leikn, the first Frost Giant I've killed. On Asgard, it is a cause of celebration! Thus, I have invited my loyal friends to a most magnificent feast!" He spread his arms with a half smile.

Clint snickered as if he remembered it.

"And I've kinda forced everyone to drop everything and follow Mr. Norse God," 'admitted' Tony, plastering a fake smirk on his face and wobbling slightly on his feet. "Rogers tried to be the responsible one and told us to knock it off, but Goldilocks has these puppy dog eyes, you know? Like when you go to an animal shelter and find these cute little fluffy balls with their big, wide eyes? _Exactly_ like that. Thor and Capsicle stared at each other with their Puppy Dog Eyes and Captain Lumberjack found himself outnumbered and out-stubborn-ed, so we got drunk. With Asgardian mead."

Steve stared at his feet as if he were embarrassed – which he was. Tony put his hands in his pants pockets and rocked on the balls of his feet like a kid who was _proud_ of being caught stealing cookies. "By the way, mead is awesome with roasted maybe-chicken. Not that you'd be invited to an Asgardian feast, it was the _Avengers_ who saved the universe-"

"And the Avengers are a _SHIELD initiative_ ," Fury deadpanned. Was it Tony's impression, or did his eyelid twitch? Whatever the case, the Director sighed. "Next time something like this happens – because I'm _sure_ you'll pull it again, Stark – I want at least two Avengers ready to face whatever threat comes knocking on SHIELD's door. Did I make myself clear, or did I fucking _stutter?_ "

"Crystalline."

"Clear as day, Eye-patch."

"Clear, sir."

"Crystal clear, Director."

Fury glared at them one more time. "I hope so." He closed the connection.

The Avengers looked at each other.

"You made your first kill this day some centuries ago, Hammertime?"

Thor nodded gravely. "Aye, but it is no cause of celebration for me. Not anymore."

.

"Brucie, does Terminator over here need the mask to breathe or something?"

Bruce shook his head.

"Then why didn't you get it off?" Tony huffed and wheeled his swivel chair to the Winter Soldier, who has been ordered to lie down on a bed of the medical floor. "These things on his face are creeping the bejesus outta me, did you know that? Didn't you take them off to shine that penlight-something into his eyes?"

"I didn't do that yet," Bruce mumbled back, putting three vials of the Soldier's blood into a centrifuge to analyze it. He had drawn three syringes of blood and asked Jarvis to run some scans on his body so he could stare at ("analyze," he said) them.

Tony took away the mask and goggles and put them on the nearest bedside table, muttering about "fudged-up medical priorities".

The Winter Soldier was staring blankly at him.

"Uh…" Tony tore his gaze away from him but _Jesus_ , that brainwashed guy had an incredibly intense stare. It was drilling holes into Tony's soul, for fuck's sake. "This is almost creepier. Scratch that – it's _definitely_ creepier. Natasha, is this normal?"

The spy nodded curtly. "He's analyzing you for weaknesses. You're also sitting too near."

Tony quickly wheeled away. "And now?" he asked, gesturing at the motionless Soldier. "He's _still_ staring!"

"Now it's because you're shouting and your focus is still on him. See now?" Natasha commented when the Soldier's gaze moved to her, who was near the wall by his right side. Tony was on his left one. "He's always aware. I've told him not to attack us under any circumstances, but I suggest you not to shout or move too quickly around him. Assassin reflexes can be hazardous to curious engineers…"

Tony rolled his eyes and wheeled back to the Soldier. "Alright," he said, turning his neck to side and hearing his spine crick, "so I've just gotta pretend he's you or Clint and… try not to poke too much into his arm? By the way, the way they put every metal plate is a work of art. Vibranium-adamantium alloy. Sturdy as hell. Soldier, sit up."

The Winter Soldier obeyed. Tony blinked at him.

"…Okay… now, copy my left arm with your left arm." He twisted his arm in all the ways his elbow and wrist allowed him, and the Soldier copied each movement perfectly. "Look at that! It's awesome. A prosthetic limb that works as well as any other limb but is invulnerable to nearly everything. Great job, Robocop, now left hand up in the air!"

The Winter Soldier obeyed, though he frowned minutely at the 'great job' part.

"Jarvis, highlight all the metal that isn't essential to the arm's working!"

The AI dutifully projected orange patches on the man's body – on his spine, shoulders, elbow, wrist, chest, a few points on his left bicep, knees and ankles.

Tony whistled. "Brucie-bru, you should come look at him, and not just because of his abs."

Bruce walked over to his friend and examined the holographic orange patches. His eyes widened. "Reinforced spine, collarbones, ribs, elbows, wrists, knees and ankles," he listed, his eyes wide. "I… I knew there must've been something to compensate the metal arm's weight and I saw the scans, but this… this is a very extensive and invasive procedure to undergo. He must've been in a lot of pain before he got used to all the metal in his joints… and his spine…"

"Why do Midgardians force fellow humans to undertake such torture?" Thor asked from his chair, an appalled expression plastered on his face. Knowing that all the orange splotches on the Winter Soldier represented the metal forcefully stuck inside his body was _horrifying_.

Heimdall silently agreed.

"Uh, well, Big Guy, you see," Tony tapped the metal arm. The Soldier chose to stare at him instead of Bruce. "This arm weighs around two times more than the other one. It weighs more than _Roger's arm_ , for fuck's sake, and that's a huge record to break. So, to make sure he wouldn't fall over every time he moved his left arm, _they_ put metal reinforcements all over his skeleton. Did you see how he swung it around when he strutted out of the base? That's 'cause it weighs a whole lot more than the other one, since it's stuffed full of metal alloys instead of human flesh. Get your arm on my level- thank you…"

Tony trailed off as he took two metal pinchers and gently pried open one of the arm's metal plates on his bicep. He glanced briefly at the Soldier. "Tell me it hurts if it hurts, 'kay? At the slightest pain you feel, you tell me."

The Winter Soldier frowned again and nodded. "Yes, sir."

"…Hmmm, let's see… these things here-" Tony pointed at three small cubes inside the arm, reaching to poke them with his tools, "are little electrodes… what do you little guys do, I wonder…?"

"It hurts," the Soldier dutifully reported and Tony instantly removed his pinchers from the arm.

"Hurts how much?" asked the genius-billionaire-etcetera. "On a scale of 0 to 10, how much did it hurt?"

The Winter Soldier's frown deepened as if he had just been asked to find the meaning of life. "…The pain was not debilitating," he eventually answered, though he shot an almost fearful look at everyone around him an instant later.

Tony resisted rolling his eyes. The poor guy had been brainwashed – he could cut him some slack. "If you had to compare it to another pain, what would you compare it to?"

"…Heated knife stab," was the Soldier's reply, and Tony cringed.

"Sounds pretty debilitating to me," he commented, making a face. "Romanoff, do you think Cap's going to punch the living lights outta me for this? He did ask me not to hurt him."

She rolled her eyes and was about to answer-

"Romanova."

The four Avengers stared at the Winter Soldier. Natasha's eyes widened minutely. "…Яша?"

The Soldier was mesmerized by the Widow, as if he weren't aware of anything else but her. "Romanova," he breathed, dazed and hesitantly hopeful. "Natalia… небольшой паук…?"

"это… я," she said, walking slowly towards him. "Я ваш небольшой паук."

For a moment – in which Tony somehow managed not to blurt out "you guys know each other?" – it looked like the Soldier would say something else, but the next instant he glanced at the other three men in the room and closed off once more. Heimdall had seen a glimmer of fear in his eyes – fear that HYDRA would come and take away his little spider again.

Natasha blinked.

"Okay, what the hell was that?" Tony asked when the silence became unnerving. "You know him and he knows you? Since when? What did he say? Not that Jarvis couldn't translate that, but if that's too touchy-feely or something-"

"I met him in the Red Room."

The Winter Soldier tensed up at the mention.

"He trained me," Natasha continued blankly, "until the Program was completed. I didn't think he'd remember me after all this time." Her lips curled into a bittersweet smile for a moment. "I was his little spider… the only one who passed their selection."

Tony wasn't sure he wanted to know what their selection was. "…Good to know, I guess? I mean, if we want to break the brainwashing, we need to start from somewhere, so… do you think you can jog a few memories loose?"

Natasha pursed her lips. "Not many that he'd want to remember."

.

Steve came in a few minutes later. "How's he doing, Bruce?"

"Uh, ehm- could be worse," the doctor replied. "His digestive system barely works, so we assume he's been fed intravenously since his glycaemia and his body weight are in the norm. Aside from his stomach and intestines he's healthier than most, actually." The duo started walking back to the Winter Soldier's assigned bed. "When I tried to cross-check his DNA with every database we could reach, though, I couldn't find any matches – it's as if he never existed, or something-"

Steve had stopped at the doorway.

Bruce frowned. "…What's wrong, Steve?"

The super-soldier couldn't stop staring at the man sitting on the medical bed, who was patiently waiting for Tony to finish taking out three electrodes which the ex-weapon manufacturer was babbling about. Tony always babbled when he was nervous.

The man out of time could swear his heart almost stopped when he saw the Soldier's face, a face so familiar and real it _ached_. "… _Bucky?"_ he whispered, disbelieving, hoping it wasn't his mind playing tricks on him.

The Winter Soldier turned immediately to the newcomer and _couldn't stop staring_.

Steve strode inside the room and almost knocked Tony's tools over in his haste. "Bucky?" he repeated, breathless. "Are… are you… _Bucky?_ "

The Soldier – Bucky – didn't answer. He was still staring, as transfixed as he was with Natasha, but this time nothing could get his focus away from the blond. Both soldiers, one standing and one sitting, looked as if they were frozen in a moment in time.

"…I know you," Bucky softly whispered.

.

Steve didn't leave the medical floor that night and chose to sleep on the bed nearest to Bucky.

But his rest was plagued by nightmares of a snowy mountain, a screeching freight train and the echoing screams of his fallen friend. He tossed and turned, calling out for the man lying awake next to him.

The Soldier had been ordered to sleep, but he couldn't do it when this man, his face and his voice nagged at him to _remember_. 'I know him,' he thought with increasing conviction, but didn't dare to speak. These handlers have already overlooked his insubordination – _the Asset doesn't speak until spoken to –_ and didn't use the Chair or the Book, but they would do it if he didn't stop acting out.

.

"Okay guys, I have an announcement to make!"

The Avengers looked at each other – as if to ask 'you too?' to their friends – then resumed to stare back at Tony.

"Shell head, it's 2 in the fucking _morning_ ," Clint moaned, rubbing his eyes. Tony was 85% sure he faking his sleepiness and was actually fully alert. At least Natasha didn't bother with the whole scene – she just stared at him with those narrowed eyes of hers, as if she were plotting how to kill him as painfully as possible for having interrupted her sleep.

She probably was.

"I know, okay, just… listen to me, this is very important and dangerous stuff, okay? It's HYDRA stuff."

They straightened their spines at the mention. Steve especially was all ears.

Tony quickly strode into his lab with the Avengers trailing after him. "You see, Jarvis has decrypted the files inside that HYDRA computer and found three main folders-" he spread his arms and his hands and Jarvis pulled up one hologram per folder, "-which are what we have to deal with in the nearest future, probably, preferably."

Steve and Natasha stared intently at the 'Project Winter Soldier' hologram.

Clint and Thor looked warily at 'Project Endgame'.

Bruce seemed cautiously drawn to 'Project Extremis', if only for the chemic formula stamped across it.

The super-soldier glanced at Tony. "What's inside this folder?" he asked, reaching to touch it open.

"Ah, you don't wanna see what's in there without mental preparation first," he warned. "It's pretty bad."

Steve's eyebrows furrowed and his mouth twisted in disgust and cold fury. He tensed up as if bracing for a blow and, either subconsciously or at the same time or both, Natasha did too. But he didn't reach to open the hologram again and instead asked, "What is Project Endgame?"

"That's even _worse_ , Cap. It's HYDRA's back-up plan in case they're busted before they launch the Insight Helicarriers – which is if they find out about us knowing their dirty secrets. They've got tons of blackmail material and takedown operations for presidents, senators, ambassadors, generals, colonels, SHIELD agents and PATs and TOASTs and whoever would oppose them!"

"Toasts?" Clint dubiously asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Tool-Oriented Augmented Super Targets," explained Tony, "which is, like, you and me. Without our tech and tools, we're plain vanilla humans." He hesitated. "Mostly. You're still a ninja superspy. Steve, Bruce, Thor and – surprise surprise – Natasha are Physically Augmented Targets, which means HYDRA's got special measures to- you know."

Steve frowned and did that _thing_ with his jaw that meant he was so _done_ with this new world. "And they already know what to do because they know our limits from SHIELD training and medical," he growled, narrowing his eyes.

"No Midgardian contraption can defeat me!" Thor stated, confident. "Only the superior magic of my home realm can do grievous damage to one such as me."

Heimdall could think back to one 'Midgardian contraption' that managed to trap Thor and stop a swing of _Mjolnir_ as it dropped to the ground. Thor could be hailed as a god on Midgard all he wanted, but humans were dangerous when they put their minds to it – which was nearly all the time. For all their good intentions, even the Avengers had to be more dangerous than their enemies if they wanted to prevail, no matter the cost.

"The Helicarrier glass prison," Steve immediately recalled. Thor frowned. "Whatever happened after it dropped, it was bad enough that you went missing for hours."

"Once I succeeded in charging Mjolnir, I escaped with minor scratches and was still ready to fight for Midgard. I've faced worse."

Tony snorted. "Yeah, and SHIELD's learned from the experience, so HYDRA will have additional surprises – 'cause of course they didn't put _all_ their files in one place – and they'll get into a war with all the other eight Realms since we kinda saved them all and Grandpa Odin loves you a whole lot."

"You forgot to say that Earth will pay the price for this war," Bruce said, fiddling with his glasses in his hands, "even if HYDRA will be defeated after that."

"Like the Hundred Years War in France," Clint agreed.

"So we all agree that Project Endgame is bad, and we have only one shot at getting the good ending. At least there are no Little Sisters with creepy syringes running around."

Steve glared at him. "Tony."

He rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright, no humor when dealing with worldwide threats, got it, Cap. By the way, the ten people stuck in Alaska? Four of them had come too close to discovering HYDRA. Jarvis, pull up the names."

Four profiles appeared behind him and he stepped back. "Melanie Raymond and Brian Brokovich, SHIELD agents. William Blake, AIM lead scientist of some project who got kicked out. Vanessa Kohlmann, spy for hire. There's not much info about her, though."

"Brokovich?" Clint repeated, his frown deepening. "He's been declared dead, right, Nat?"

She nodded. "During the New Delhi mission last November. Agent Raymond, too." The redhead shook her head. "Both we and SHIELD had been busy with the Aether and all the Dark Elves – we should've known something was wrong with that mission. We should keep track of HYDRA's movements and destroy Project Endgame before someone tips them off."

Tony almost shrugged, but the live footage of those four people shivering and almost dying because of the Alaskan cold stopped him. He _did_ have a heart, thank you. "We can ask Heimdall, right, Thor?"

After a moment of consideration, the prince nodded. "Aye. I shall ask him to keep track of HYDRA's activities."

Heimdall was already doing that on his own, since it was his duty to make sure that Thor's Midgardian enemies wouldn't catch him unaware. Sure, the Avengers had access to the 'Internet' and hidden databases (Tony), most of SHIELD's files and areas (Clint and Natasha) and were among the strongest warriors of their Realm.

He glanced again in HYDRA's direction. They didn't know the Avengers were plotting their demises.

"And what is inside Project Winter Soldier?" The blond asked, doing that _thing_ with his jaw again.

Tony hesitated. "It's a list of instructions, mostly. _Detailed_ instructions. It describes how to use the – you remember that metal chair with electrodes? It describes how to use that: for how long your friend was supposed to be stuck in it, how often, when…" He refused to cringe at the narrow-eyed glare Steve aimed his way, but _damn_ if it didn't make him want to. "Also, that red book you brought back. That thing has the other half of information – which is, how long Barnes can be let out before he starts remembering things and rebelling and what trigger words would've to be said to, well, control him."

Steve sighed heavily through his nose. Tony saw him counting to ten (and maybe doing some divisions too, just for kicks) before he spoke again. "Let me see it," he ordered stiffly.

"All yours," Tony mumbled and tossed the holographic icon at his teammate. Natasha stood beside him – 'When did she get the book from my desk?' Tony wondered – and examined the files with Steve. Their expressions were as ominous as Thor's had been after Loki was killed.

Bruce had been silently staring at his teammates (friends) as they all analyzed their self-assigned missions. "What's Extremis?" he eventually asked. He gestured at the rough formula contained in the folder. "This chemical is incomplete, not to mention unstable."

"It's some kind of AIM project to create an army of super-soldiers," Tony answered as he opened the holographic folder.

Steve glanced at him at the word 'super-soldiers', frowning, then resumed to examine the Winter Soldier files. Thor turned because that word had always been associated to the Captain. Clint and Natasha were probably still listening to Tony with one ear.

"You know, the usual super-villainy stuff – getting invincible armies, conquering the world, stomping on puny heroes." Bruce almost rolled his eyes at the offhand explanation. "There's not much about it, though. Just an incomplete formula of the serum 2.0, which doesn't even _look_ stable, some cases of missing people, mostly retired soldiers. A couple of names of… scientists, maybe, who knows."

The doctor read the few files hovering in Tony's lab. "That's… it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "If not even HYDRA could get much about this, AIM's keeping this well under wraps."

Tony nodded. "At least we can blast them to hell whenever they stir up trouble, contrary to deep undercover Nazi organizations that are building three Helicarriers to rain fire down on every last bit of resistance next year."

Steve put on his Righteous Face. "We need a plan."

.

It was the first of July and the last six months had been incredibly busy for the Avengers.

The six superheroes had worked out a "nuclear-war-proof plan" (according to Tony) by the end of January. They decided to split up in three groups to tackle the three Projects at the same time: Steve and Natasha would help the Winter Soldier become Bucky again, Clint and Thor would dismantle Project Endgame and find the four people HYDRA had imprisoned because of their knowledge, Tony and Bruce would stop Project Extremis and save the people gone missing.

They were busy with their own missions, but that didn't mean they didn't work together.

.

 _February 2013_

"So, Fury told us to go find ourselves."

"Wow, that joke was a new low even for you, shell head."

"Shut up, Katniss. I'm just too awesome for your bird brain to comprehend."

Steve sighed heavily. "Clint, Thor, keep looking for the four people from Alaska. Tony, use whatever tracking system you have to help them. Ask Heimdall only if the STRIKE team is too close to finding them before us."

Natasha tilted slightly her head. "We should get the AIM scientist first. He doesn't know a thing about covering his own tracks."

"And that'd help us a lil' bit," Tony added, "if he knows something more about Extremis."

Steve nodded. "Yes, find him first. Don't get recognized by Rumlow." He rubbed his forehead, sighing again. "I can't believe that was a _SHIELD_ base."

"It was controlled by Sitwell, Cap – it might as well have HYDRA octopi painted everywhere."

.

"You can ask everything you need to know."

The Winter Soldier – not Bucky, not yet – blinked at the two of them, pondering what he needed to ask. "Do I have a mission?"

Steve's skin tightened around his eyes. Natasha replied, "Your mission is to remember your past."

He nodded, because missions gave him a purpose. He was getting restless with these new, strangely gentle handlers – they never followed standard protocol, but he was still alive, in working order and not going back to the cryogenic tank. The only reason he could think of was he had a mission. But this mission was unusual. "How do I complete this mission? Is there a support unit?"

"Yes, Buck, there is." Steve squared his shoulders. "We're… providing support to you for this mission. I'm Steve Rogers-"

"-and I am Natalia Romanova." The Captain glanced at her. He noticed she used her unchanged Russian name.

The Soldier's eyes shifted between those two terribly familiar people. Their names were ringing rusted bells in his head, and yet he couldn't make sense of it. But he knew better than mention it again, especially during a mission briefing.

Steve couldn't stand the silence that fell. "Just try to find the things or people that… remind you of something. If they do, you can ask them to tell you."

"Information gathering," Natasha summarized.

The Soldier nodded. He could do information gathering.

The redhead handed him a blank blue notebook and a black pen. "Every day at ten o'clock in the evening you'll report to both of us about your progress with your mission, which you'll write in here. Everything that reminds you of something, everyone you feel you know, every scrap of information goes here. Your research area is limited to the Avengers Quarters – only an Avenger can give you access to Tony's lab or their own bedrooms. The balcony and the public floors of Avengers Tower are off-limits. Do you have any questions about your mission?"

The Soldier did not. He set out to work, notebook and pen in hand.

.

"What the fuck do you mean _Thor accidentally fried our servers in Preston?"_

Clint shrugged. "He likes his popcorn popped with lightning, sir."

"Then why the _fuck_ didn't you _stop him_ , Agent _Barton?"_ Fury narrowed further his good eye at him. "Do you have any idea of _how much_ intel we had stored in there, and how much would _never_ be recovered because of this stunt?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but who am I to stop the freaking _God of Thunder_ from having his popcorn the way he likes? He gets angry if he doesn't, and if he was angry he would've fried _me_ along with those servers."

.

 _March 2013_

Tony stumbled into the common floor with both eyes closed, his back hunched and his right hand outstretched, moaning, "Coooffeeee… cooooffeeeee…."

Steve, 'Bucky' and Thor – the only Avengers and one guest already in the room, since Natasha and Clint had been called away for a SHIELD op – stared at him.

"Friend Tony, what-"

"Ssshhhhh…" Tony patted the kitchen counter until he found his prized coffee machine – or "Fountain of Godly Ambrosia and Sweet Nectar", according to the man. "Sshhhh…" Jarvis had already poured a mug of coffee for his creator and Tony didn't splash himself with its scalding liquid, somehow.

A few gulps later, Tony shook his head and looked much more alert and awake. "Me thinks Extremis turns people into dragons."

Alright, not very alert and not very awake.

"…Dragons?" Steve hesitantly asked, putting down the Oreo he had in his hand. Thor did the same with a pop-tart and Bucky lowered his bowl of milk and chocolate cereal on his plate.

(He was recovering nicely, all things considered. He could eat solid food every once in a while, but he'd have to wait a few more months for a proper Asgardian feast… if he ever took part in one.)

"Hmmm? Oh, yeah," Tony hummed, flapping his free hand in their direction. "Y'know, fire-breathing lackeys are so much more _fun_ to fight. But no dragons. Yet. I wouldn't put it past 'em." He gulped down half of his mug of coffee and exaggerated a shiver. "Ugh. I'm not used to all-nighters anymore. You're turning me into a _responsible adult_ , it's like a horrible dream."

Steve tensed minutely at the last bit. Bucky had said something similar to it during the war. "How many fire-breathers?" he asked. After seeing aliens, world-alignments, having an Infinity Stone stuck in him and finding _his best friend_ in a SHIELD/HYDRA base, his perception of weird has been changed forever.

Thor had also regaled the Avengers with some more of his battle stories – huge horned things that "Hela would never let get out of Hel, friend Tony", poisonous birds, a possessed Pegasus, Bilgesnipes, a Kraken similar to what they had faced in August and, of course, Fire Giants of Musphelheim.

"Brucie and I are trying to…" Tony downed the last of his coffee. "…trying to find the basic temperature of the fire-breathers and then, when we've got all the data and suspects and whatever, we'll tune every thermal scanner we can get our digital hands on to that value and hope there aren't too many. I mean, they shouldn't be a problem _if_ I can finish my pterodactyl-proof and possibly fireproof Mark 27, but, you know. Stuff happens."

"Will we fight fire-breathers?" the Soldier/Bucky asked, a green notebook and a pen in hand. Two months had passed and he had already finished the first one, stuffing it full of information and numbers ('Capt Mission Command Steve Rogers has 46 drawings of the Soldier, 32 drawings about a woman (see Peggy Carter) and 27 about the Avengers. This reminds me of Steve Rogers used to draw people a lot during the 30's.').

Tony blinked at him. "Yes, most likely, I hope not many." He stared at the brown-haired man until he finished scribbling on his notebook. He glanced at Steve. "I don't know if Mama Bear wants you to join in, though…"

Steve gave a long-suffering sigh. "Tony…"

The owner of the Tower snatched two boxes of cookies from the kitchen counter and hurried back to the elevator, saying, "Going, going, going, gone-" until the elevator doors closed.

.

"Stark, don't think you can lie to me this easily."

"Lying? Who's lying?" Tony didn't even look at Fury, who was looming behind him like some particularly _furious_ harpy. "It's not my fault you got cyber-attacked. You should tell your agents to stop clicking on ads of strange sites, I hear you can get some nasty viruses-"

"Viruses that can take down the computers of a _whole SHIELD outpost_ in Las Vegas?" Fury drawled, and yet his voice had that cutting edge that meant Tony had better give him some damn explanations, right now, or pay for his lies in blood.

Tony snorted. It was a virus of his own creation – not on Jarvis's level, but hey, nothing would ever be – so _of course_ it could do that. The only problem was that he couldn't allow Fury to know it. "I've already purged it outta your servers, relax. It was a nasty son of a bitch, but I got it and erased it and everything. Every file should be a-okay."

Fury narrowed his eye at him and crossed his arms. "It'd better be."

Of course, Tony had planned this better than a normal hacker with no knowledge of SHIELD would have. His virus had, in those few moments of cyber security shutdown, changed the data of all the Project Endgame files inside the outpost's servers. When Tony was called to deal with it, he snatched up his own virus and all the information he had stolen and changed.

Ha. HYDRA would be trying to correct every 'mistake' in their master plan by making other mistakes.

He should ask Clint to spread his LFR (Low-Frequency Repeaters) around the Triskelion… or would that be too much for Fury's heart to handle?

.

The Soldier was slowly becoming Bucky again.

Or, as it was, he was questioning his orders and who he was taking them from.

"No," he firmly told Natasha when she asked for his evening report.

Her eyes widened minutely. "Why not?" she asked.

"Why yes?" he shot back, crossing his arms.

"Buc- James," Steve corrected himself, because the Soldier told them he preferred to be called 'James', "we can't help you if you don't tell us what you've found out today."

James narrowed his eyes at him, and Steve cringed. "Why should I? I can remember just fine on my own – you don't _need_ to know what _I_ know."

"We do," the super-soldier affirmed, squaring his shoulders and putting on his Captain America face. "We want to help you recover your memories, remember who you are-"

"Then why did you let me _fall?_ "

Steve flinched as if he's been slapped. He stumbled back a step and Heimdall saw his horror, grief and guilt twisting his features. James remembered falling off the freight train and Steve not catching him – and he's been dealing with it _alone_.

" _Why_ did you?" James pressed, hissing and stepping forward. "If you wanted to _help_ me, you could've caught me _before_ I fell, Rogers, don't you dare come here tellin' me you want to help-"

"That's enough, James," Natasha cut in, her cold voice stopping the man in his tracks. He knew he didn't want to be on the receiving end of that voice, though he didn't remember why. "You may not believe it, but he did all he could to save you." James snorted, disbelieving, but let the Black Widow continue. "Look back in your notebooks. Read everything you have about Steve, if you want. He would have _never_ let you fall, if he could have helped it."

James left with a muttered, "Yeah, right," and stomped into his room, locked the door and examined his two notebooks.

.

'-Steve Rogers has 46 drawings of the Soldier-'

'(Steve Rogers) "The first time I met Bucky (see James Buchanan Barnes), Big Timothy was beating the snot outta me […] and then we found out we were neighbors, so nothing could keep us apart for long-"'

'-the Soldier was created in Russia, but James Buchanan Barnes was born in the USA (March 10th 1917, Brooklyn, New York,)-'

'(Stevie Steve)"My ma used to hug Bucky a lot 'cause you (the Soldier) he made sure I could live to see another day-"'

'(Hawkeye) "Steve never, never watches his own back. […] When he got hit by a Chitauri energy blast (see 'Battle of Manhattan', May 2012) 'cause he didn't notice the fucker sneaking up behind him till it was too late, he commented that this Bucky guy (see James Buchanan Barnes) had his six in every fight and he 'got lost in the heat of battle'."'

'(Tony Stark) "There was this time after AIM (see Advanced Idea Mechanics, Villains) caught Spangles (see Captain America, Avengers) last July (see July 15th 2012) when he was sick, you know? Sick and feverish and hallucinating. I was checking up on our Stevie Star-spangly sugarcube when he snapped awake, screaming for some Bucky that he used to know (see 'Somebody that I used to know', Songs; see Inappropriate Jokes)."'

'(Banner) "Nobody here is sleeping properly. If I didn't have the Other Guy (see Hulk, Avengers), I'd probably be following their example. Steve especially sleeps very little – and you know there's something wrong with him if he sleeps less than Tony. Three, four hours at most. He wakes up apologizing to you Bucky (see James Buchanan Barnes)."'

'[to Steve "Am I James Buchanan Barnes?"] (Steve) "[hesitating] Yes, Buck. You've always been."

["Did I know you?"] (Steve) "[still hesitating] Of course. We've known each other nearly our whole lives. You're Bucky, the same Bucky I talked about these months."

["I am James Barnes. Call me James, not Bucky."] (Steve) [smiling oddly] "Okay, James."

(see Physical signs of emotional distress; see March 13th 2013, sobs from Steve's room)'

.

 _April 2013_

James walked into the medical floor to find all the Avengers sleeping together.

He had watched them fighting against some kind of king fish-man (Attuma, he discovered) all day long. The fish-man had brought his warriors from the darkest depths of the Atlantic Ocean to New York, because "once I have you all dead at my feet, Avengers, I will finally conquer the surface world and no one will try to stop me!"

The ensuing battle took the warriors of Atlantis (?) and Earth back and forth between the Atlantic and Manhattan, depending on who had the upper hand in that moment. Iron Man soared over the fish-men and blasted them back to the ocean; Thor called down his lightning to fry their brains; Hulk roared and smashed them into buildings and concrete; Hawkeye made sure to kill those who tried to get outside the 'invasion zone'; Black Widow and Captain America saved the people stuck in there and fended off the warriors that tried to attack them.

But when the battle moved to the Atlantic, James distinctly remembered a huge, dull orange-

" _Kraken?!_ Is that the same- Jesus, it's the _same Kraken_ of last year! What the _fuck!?"_

The news broadcasted Iron Man's exclamation for the whole world to hear, somehow.

James (and Heimdall) watched the Avengers' battle against the Kraken. They watched as the six superheroes barely managed to take down the enormous creature with Thor's lightning, Iron Man's uni-beam, Jarvis's calculations, Hulk's smashing, Hawkeye's shots, Black Widow's piloting abilities and Captain America's plan of attack. Not to mention their collective experience about fighting that Kraken.

It still wasn't enough to avoid all of them getting injured.

Tony got three broken ribs and six bruised ones, because the Kraken got him around its tentacles once. Thor had his right collarbone shattered and a cracked shoulder blade, because he got hit by another tentacle when he was hovering over the monster. Clint got his left ankle dislocated (because he landed wrong when he was running from the Atlantis warriors), a cracked femur and a quiver-shaped black bruise on his back.

Bruce had both wrists sprained from when the Hulk landed on his hands instead of his feet and transformed back into his human counterpart shortly after. Natalia had a concussion and a broken arm (both ulna and radio) because the Kraken slammed into the Aveng-jet and hurtled her to the right side. Steve had actually fallen down into the ocean when the Kraken forced the hatch open and grabbed him – all his ribs were cracked or broken, his left arm and leg were broken in five different points each and he had a nastier concussion than Natalia.

James was hidden in Steve's room when he saw – courtesy of Jarvis – other people getting inside the Tower.

There was Fury and Maria Hill, checking up on the Avengers. A woman with strawberry-blonde hair called Pepper and a certain Colonel Rhodes who hovered over Tony in particular, though they were incredibly worried about all of them. Someone called Helen Cho. A whole equip (twenty-two) of medics and nurses.

James had checked every now and then that William Blake, AIM scientist Natalia had found a couple of days ago, wasn't plotting anything in his room/cell. The man had been more slippery than they thought, but he was involved in Project Extremis, so he was more useful to Tony and Bruce alive.

But now James was standing in the medical floor, and he stared at the five Avengers sleeping on their beds put together around Steve's.

Tony had a bust around his torso and, surrounded by soft white pillows, he slept by Steve's left side. Thor had taken up his right side, his right shoulder all wrapped up and his right arm in a sling. Clint was sleeping face-down with his left leg propped up a wall of pillows near Steve and Thor's feet. Natasha was curled up around her right arm by Clint's left side. Bruce was sleeping soundly with Tony's left foot on his chest and both wrists in a light brace.

Heimdall watched them rest. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' weren't mighty just because of their individual strengths. Their seamless teamwork, the lengths they'd go for each other and their planet – that was what made them the mightiest.

.

Brian Brokovich was brought in by SHIELD during the Avengers' recovery.

One day in, and Tony, Natasha and Thor broke him out. Tony remotely jammed the cameras for the minute it took Thor to fry the lights of the outpost in Queens, while Natasha helped the man out. It was getting ridiculously easy to outmaneuver SHIELD. But maybe it was because they were used to it.

Either way, Brian was snuck inside Avengers Tower.

After coming to terms with getting rescued by the Avengers, meeting Captain America (there were always SHIELD agents excited to meet the living legend, apparently), finding out what shenanigans Clint had been up to and seeing for himself how far HYDRA went inside SHIELD, Brian had been asked how he'd prove HYDRA's existence to Fury.

He had no idea. Every operation had been approved by 'SHIELD' superiors. There was nothing out of place, officially. SHIELD had tiptoed the line between right and wrong for so long that they recruited actual villains without noticing anything for seventy years.

(Heimdall knew that ten people throughout those years had indeed noticed that something was amiss inside SHIELD, but they were quickly silenced the moment HYDRA knew about them.)

With an excuse about attending a board meeting in Los Angeles (which he actually attended, much to Pepper's surprise), Tony brought Brian to his anti-HYDRA hideout near his Malibu residence and told him to lay low and wait until everything was sorted out.

"After we kick HYDRA's ass, SHIELD will need every loyal hand it can get," he had said before he left the place.

.

'[to Tony "Are you Howard Stark's son?"] (Tony) "Yes."

["When did he die?"] (Tony) [working on Extremis] "December 16th 1991."

["I remember I killed him HYDRA killed him."] (Tony) [turning] "[hissing] HYDRA… killed him?"

["Yes. It was my mission."] [Tony stares at me for 5 seconds. His eyes are moist.] (Tony) "Get out, Barnes."

(see Physical signs of distress; see April 26th 2013, Tony locks himself in his lab for two days; see April 27th 2013, discussion with Stevie Steve about Howard Stark)'

.

 _May 2013_

James's nightmares became worse with each memory he remembered.

He remembered his fall, his torture and his brainwashing and his targets started trickling back into his mind. He shouldn't have let their faces – some oblivious of their imminent death, some defiant, some fearful or crying, but most were _terrified_ – come back.

There was one time he walked in a daze into Thor's room and tried to slit his throat with his own razor.

Thor had jerked awake and hurled the "foul cowardly intruder" through the opposite wall, waking up Steve and Bruce and calling down Natasha, Clint and Tony. Of course, when the shock of slamming into a wall and onto the floor woke him up, James realized he couldn't have killed an _Asgardian God_ with a puny razor. It didn't make the following discussion any more pleasant.

But Thor was incredibly blasé about his assassination attempt.

"It was but a memory revisited – you meant me no harm, right, friend James?"

James shook his head. "No, I didn't. I just… it shouldn't have happened."

"Jarvis can lock the doors if you ask him," Tony added. He had grease up to his elbows and a welder mask on his forehead because he was doing 'late night Science'. "Natasha and Legolas prefer doing it manually but, you know. Your choice. Just don't go stab us in our sleep, we're not mighty and powerful gods like Hammertime over here."

"I Hulk out instead of dying," Bruce mumbled. Tony nudged him with a flippant, "c'mon Brucie, if Attuma comes back looking for a wrestling rematch, you won't have to worry too much!"

Bruce face-palmed at that, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips.

"I almost took down a Helicarrier with all the Avengers aboard once," Clint stated out of the blue. "I also shot Fury and tried to kill Nat."

There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at the archer.

Thor saw where this was going. "I fought against friend Tony and Steven when I travelled to Midgard for the second time. I would have brought Mjolnir down on friend Steve, had he not used his shield."

"I tried to kill Clint a few times," Natasha admitted. If sharing similar past experiences would help Barnes, then so be it. It wasn't like the Avengers didn't know this part of her past already. "Coulson, Fury and Hill too."

Bruce shuffled his feet. "I almost killed Natasha. Tried to kill Thor."

"I… almost picked a fight with Tony?" Steve shrugged uneasily. "I never tried to kill a future comrade."

"Well, I was fighting against Goldilocks before you jumped in," said Tony, scratching his goatee. "Who knows if we'd have killed each other, or something. See, Barnes?" he turned to James. "We've all tried to do each other in – except Spangles, he's our special star-spangled snowflake – so _this_? This just makes you fit in. An initiation ceremony. At the ass-crack of dawn. When I was welding Mark 27's back plates _again_ , 'cause that Kraken was a rude son of a-"

"We know, tin can, we know." Clint rolled his eyes and stretched his arms over his head. He picked up his crutches from the wall nearby. "Now, if we're all okay, what about getting back to sleep? I'm sure as hell going and you can't keep me from my bed when I use my _turbo crutches_."

.

"Guys, I've got good news and bad news!"

Clint leveled a half-lidded stare at Tony from his cup of coffee. "O' course you do…"

"Start from the good ones," muttered Steve. Thor, Natasha and Bruce had been called away to deal with some kind of presumed Asgardian artifact that projected gamma-radiation similar to the Tesseract. The Avengers hoped it wasn't another Infinity Stone.

Since Tony, Steve and Clint were the ones hurt worse by the Kraken, they could sit that one out.

Tony clapped his hands. "The good news is that, with Blake's truth-serum-approved help, we've got a our much needed data to identify people injected with Extremis."

"And the bad news is there is something like a million of them out there, right?" Clint was so _done_ with this.

"Only thirty, actually, Clint." Tony's smile was all teeth. "The cases of suicide by bomb? They're wrong – those retired soldiers weren't committing suicide, and they weren't carrying any bomb. _They_ were the bomb."

Steve's shoulders tensed. "You mean that Extremis is so unstable that…"

"It makes them explode, eventually, yes," Tony nodded grimly. "It's as bad as it sounds. Not only we'll be fighting fire-breathing super-soldiers, but they can also blow up any time, taking with them a whole lot of people. According to Blake, the head of AIM is one Aldrich Killian. As soon as Thor comes back… wait." He looked skywards. "Can _we_ call Heimdall?"

"Thor would've told us if we could," Clint mumbled. "When does that guy want to conquer the world?"

"It's all rather poetic, actually – he wants to do it this Christmas."

Steve cracked the glass he was holding. Clint made a face. "Aw, Christmas? Not even a bit of respect? It's not like he'd find the world wrapped like a gift under his fucking Christmas tree, but come _on_! _Christmas_?"

"We'll stop him before he can get that far," the original super-soldier mumbled into his glass of milk, glaring at the opposite wall. "Ideal deadline is by the end of September. As soon as the whole team comes back, we're hunting this Killian down."

.

As it turned out, Natasha, Thor and Bruce came back a week later, at the end of May.

The two humans were relatively fine: it was Thor the most injured of the trio.

Heimdall gritted his teeth – it was his duty to make sure his prince was safe, but the Enchantress had used a stray piece of Aether to create a pocket dimension in which the All-seeing guardian _could not see_. She wanted to have Thor as her husband and companion, but she knew he wouldn't have accepted willingly, so she trapped him with her augmented powers.

However, she underestimated the Avengers, as the other Realms had done before their victory against Malekith.

Amora the Enchantress was eventually defeated and, when the pocket dimension disappeared, the three Avengers returned to Midgard; but their fight had took its toll on Thor.

Odin the All-father was most displeased and demanded his son be returned to Asgard.

The Avengers didn't have much choice but to obey.

It did hinder their future attack plans, though. Thor was more powerful than most Asgardians, never mind humans: he could wield Mjolnir and lightning, he could fly, resist against nearly all Midgardian weapons and strike fear into their enemies, if they were "plain vanilla humans".

But it was much more than a missing comrade: the Avengers were missing a friend. Thor left a (temporary) hole in their team, and it got more noticeable every day they passed without him.

Bruce thought it was his fault for not noticing the energy spikes of the Aether before Amora could make her move. Tony thought he and Jarvis should have recognized the gamma signature as the Aether's before the three Avengers even left the Tower. Clint thought he could have helped them if he had managed to land right and not break his leg, and maybe Thor would have been better off. Steve thought he should have been there by Thor's side because his ribs didn't hurt him as badly as in April and "friends help each other, no matter what."

Natasha analyzed their fight against Amora from every angle she could think of, and yet she couldn't find a way in which Thor didn't have to ultimately deplete almost all of his energy and take the brunt of the Enchantress's attack. The Black Widow tried not to dwell on it, but she couldn't.

Oddly enough, it was James (he didn't feel like 'Bucky' yet) who tried to 'pull their heads outta their asses' by telling them that "thinking about the past is what I've been doing for the past five months and I'm telling you – though you know that already – that wondering 'What if?' helps absolutely nobody. _Nobody_. Not yourselves, not the people you've killed, not the people you couldn't save. You don't want me to blame myself for those I killed following HYDRA's orders? Then stop blaming yourself for what happened to Thor. He's _sleeping_ , for fuck's sake, he's gonna come back."

.

 _June 2013_

"I had a plan to kick Killian's ass back to hell and _then Thor goes in hibernation_."

Steve glared dagger at Tony. "It's the Enchantress's fault, not his."

"I know, Cap, I know – it's just me telling you that we're one Avenger down, and I'm talking about the god who can call lightning down on us all puny mortals with his magical hammer forged in the heart of a _star_. He could dent my _armor_ with his _bare hands_."

"Who do you suggest, then?" Natasha asked, rolling her eyes, because they didn't have time to waste.

Tony grinned. "We need someone who can fly and hit hard, right? I know someone who can do just that, is 100% HYDRA free and can probably get a day off if you can speak for him."

The Captain regarded warily his friend.

The billionaire's grin widened. "Rhodey."

.

Though initially grumbling about Tony "pulling strings to make me join him on a crazy quest, and he got Captain America involved too, I hope this isn't just one of your pranks", the Colonel was more than ready to fight alongside the Avengers.

Fighting with Iron Man against the Hammer Drones had been fun, mostly, but _Captain America_ – Captain America _himself_ – was asking him to help the Avengers take down fire-breathing criminal super-soldiers. War Machine was _ready_.

.

"We'll need more firepower to take enough Extremis soldiers by surprise, though," Bruce commented.

Clint perked up. "Or stealth," he added. "Nat and I get inside the Miami mansion and use your- what did you call it? Orcs, Recs?"

"It's ERCS, Barton, Extremis Really Cold Stabilizer. And it's still a prototype, which means that it has a 12% chance of not working-"

Natasha raised an eyebrow. "12%?"

"It's _our_ -" Tony half-hugged Bruce, "-prototype, of _course_ it will work, unless it's your unluckiest day and you get that tenth of chance in which it doesn't. It will stun their ability to melt your bones through contact, but you'd have to shoot them in the eye to kill them with this."

"I'm coming with you," said Steve, putting on his Righteous Face. "Those guys are still super-soldiers, melting bones or not. You're not going in there without one on your side."

"Who's gonna evacuate the area if not you, Cap? Nat and Legolas will drop in and stealth-kill a whole bunch of enemies, Rhodey and I are gonna be waiting to break in with Jolly Green- and don't you dare say I can coordinate an evacuation of half Miami without insulting each one of them and their mothers, or that your flesh has a melting temperature above 3000 degrees Celsius – say any of that and I _will_ _punch_ you."

The Captain just stared at Tony. "Does _your suit_ have a melting temperature above 3000 degrees Celsius?"

"Mark 29 is made of a gold-titanium-tungsten alloy – it does start melting at 2052 degrees, but that's just to find equilibrium between flight ability and defense against melting, not that you'd know anything about balancing thruster power, suit flaps, repulsors, the power of the Arc reactor _stuck in my chest_ and- well," Tony caught himself techno-babbling and summarized, "just about every part has to be balanced with all the others, you know. Besides, I can fly away from the fire-breathers, and you _can't._ Also, you're not the only super-soldier on our side."

Steve sighed. Tony was just making sure they had the best odds of survival, and yet… the Captain didn't like involving James. Not without telling him what kind of trouble he'd face with them. "Only if he agrees."

.

"Are you kidding me? Of _course_ I'm coming- Steve, I spent a whole day watching you all get almost crushed by a giant orange squid. Barely three months later and you pick a fight with fire-breathing super-soldiers. I swear, I need one of the backpack leashes they make these days, just for you."

.

Melanie Raymond was found dead on June 20th. A single bullet through her head. Small caliber, pointblank. Nothing stolen. Nothing out of place. No fingerprints. No footprints. The most enigmatic execution of the century.

"It wasn't AIM," Bruce said, "because they would've left something scorched, or some kind of technological trace."

"It wasn't SHIELD, either," added Natasha, crossing her arms. "They would've tried to bring her in, leaving signs of struggle throughout her hideout."

"It wasn't the STRIKE team, aka HYDRA," Tony stated. "Those guys would've broken in with a big bad boom and riddled her with high-caliber bullets. Or left her gas open. Or killed her slowly for revenge, maybe, if they felt sadistic enough."

"It wasn't any world-hopping wizard or alien or whatever," Clint mumbled, "'cause they'd have leveled the building where she was instead of going through the trouble of learning how to get away with murder."

Steve clenched his fists. Thor couldn't ask Heimdall, and they had no idea who could have killed Agent Raymond if it wasn't HYDRA. "What is SHIELD saying?"

Tony threw four holograms at each Avenger. "Fury thinks some enemy of SHIELD hunted Melanie down for revenge. Hill agrees, Coulson is doing his own investigation and Sitwell says the 'Card Crew' just upped their game to deal with the SHIELD jailbirds that escaped the Alaska ghost-prison. Eye-patch is still pissed about us not finding ourselves, by the way."

Steve ignored the last sentence. "But they don't know anything for sure."

The genius engineer shook his head. "Nothing at all. Which is kinda disappointing for an intelligence worldwide organization, but what can we do."

The Captain pursed his lips. He clearly didn't like this situation. "I hate saying this, but we can't investigate her murder and deal with our original plan at the same time. We still have to find where Killian is, where he's keeping his army and where HYDRA has put their Endgame information and equipment. We should also tell Fury about James."

"We could arrange a private meeting," Tony mumbled. "In the Tower. And tell Angry Pirate not to shoot him. Or tell anyone about him. Or just tell Hill and Coulson. Then what? He's gonna shoot Pierce in the face next time he sees him?"

"This is a bad period for Fury to distrust half his agents," added Natasha, though she frowned at her own words. "Loki's attack left Manhattan with billions of damages to repair; Attuma made things worse with his fish-men and his Kraken. SHIELD is still searching for any Atlantis tech stolen by snooping civilians and potential super-villains. A good part of an ancient Aztec temple has been teleported in another Realm."

(The inhabitants of Vanaheim did wonder where all those carved stones came from, but they weren't dangerous so they warily used them as building materials. Maybe the All-father could get them returned to Midgard, after Thor healed?)

The Black Widow crossed her arms. "Until HYDRA finds out we know about them, they're still going to help against these threats. SHIELD is stretched thin enough as it is: we'll tell Fury after the worst is over."

Steve didn't like keeping secrets at all. At the beginning, it seemed the natural choice: if the Avengers started getting rampant trust issues, well, they were still Earth's Mightiest Heroes and were entitled to their own quirks to a certain extent. If Director Fury did it… HYDRA would have gotten much more suspicious.

Tony had planned to free the Winter Soldier from HYDRA and his brainwashing and show him as proof of HYDRA's continued existence. But their schedules were stuffed full of meetings, SHIELD missions, training, experiments, maintenance of their own equipment, dealing with the daily threat to Earth's safety and virtue, secret meetings and secret side-missions – all of that while they tried to get enough sleep and survive. Not to mention all the accidents.

"July," the Captain decided. "We'll tell him in July."

.

 _July 2013_

It was the first of July and the human Avengers – plus War Machine and the Winter Soldier – were ready to fight AIM.

.

 **For Jarvis 'Card Crew' codename: Willy Smith - Will Smith - Agent J - Jarvis**

 **Leikn is actually a Frost Giant killed by Thor, though I don't know if it's the first.**

 **The melting temperature is actually the sum of the three melting temperatures of gold, titanium and tungsten divided by three. I checked the Extremis explosion temperature on Marvel wiki, yay!**

 **"Следуйте за нами, солдат": "Follow us, Soldier"**

 **"…Яша?": Yasha. Was it canon or 'fanon' that Natasha called Bucky like this?**

 **"небольшой паук…?": "little spider."**

 **"это… я, Я ваш небольшой паук.": "It's me, I am your little spider."**

 **PLEASE NOTE that, though it can easily be read as WinterWidow, I meant this as a close teacher-student relationship. Bucky taught Natasha when she was still a young girl, right? That puts their relationship is a different category, if you ask me.**

 **Next up: Dealing with Extremis and Fury and HYDRA while trouble happens.**


End file.
